


Fireproof

by SpaceWaffleHouseTM



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Beaches, Brief Fire Related Violence, California, Cuddling & Snuggling, Drinking, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Hospitalization, Injury Recovery, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, No Pregnancy, Recovery, Relatively fast burn, Rescue, Sharing a Bed, Smut, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Strangers to Lovers, brief angst, mild violence, wildfire - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 06:36:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26468806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceWaffleHouseTM/pseuds/SpaceWaffleHouseTM
Summary: When Rey's home is overrun by a wildfire, she has to evacuate with little time and no warning. Then she saves the life of Ben Solo, the neighbor she barely knows, on the road and he offers her a place to stay in the aftermath.Or how two people who are little more than strangers learn to heal together.Mostly by cuddling.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 158
Kudos: 504
Collections: Ijustfellintothissendhelp, To Rapture the Earth and the Seas: the 2020 Reylo Fanfiction Anthology





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome! This fic is complete and I think I’ll update twice a week until it’s complete on Fridays and Tuesdays at midnight UTC. Thank you all so much for reading 💖
> 
> Also thank you so much to [HarpiaHarpyja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/harpiaharpyja) and [Aionimica](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aionimica/pseuds/aionimica) and [CrossingWinter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossingwinter/pseuds/crossingwinter) for the beta reading! Their feedback made this look incredible.

The fire hazard was the highest on record. Over the mountains to the north, the Santa Ana winds roared furiously—according to the words of the local radio that was playing in Johnson’s Repair Shop, anyway—heating the back of the mechanic and owner of said shop as she bent over the engine of a ‘68 Camaro. 

She almost felt like she was already on fire, it was so hot. Last she checked, she didn’t even live that close to Death Valley. Apparently, living on the wrong side of the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco had its downsides in the summer. It was sweltering. 

_ Fuck.  _

This was a mistake. 

She should’ve waited until the electric guy got here and fixed the air conditioning to bother with fixing any more cars—especially a black one—but alas. 

Rey Johnson was a fool. 

She was probably also a fool for running this shop on her own, for being its sole employee instead of hiring people to help her with everything and lessen the load on herself, but she’d earned this shop the hard way. As much as she loved her friends, the only person she trusted to run the shop that once belonged to the parents she could barely remember was herself. 

The last time she’d had a business partner, it had ended with him behind bars and scars on her brain that would never be able to heal—though, business partner was too light a term to begin with. Her foster father hadn’t exactly been fair. Therefore, it would always be just her, just Rey and the shop, her only pride and joy. Sure, Poe and Finn were around every so often, helping on days when she was  _ really  _ busy, but in their lazy little small town, that was rare. 

Ahch-To was small, tucked away from everything in the hills. Crowds were a foreign concept and, especially in her neighborhood, she only knew a few people. Two of them were her friends and one was her next-door neighbor, whom she only ran into when they were accidentally delivered each other’s mail. 

The first time she’d met that neighbor had been when her gynecologist bill had gotten sent to his house instead of hers. She’d opened her door that day to see some supermodel of a man flushed crimson beneath a curtain of raven hair holding out an envelope with a slightly shaky hand and a nervous smile. “I-uh-I think this is yours,” he’d said, and without saying a word, she’d snatched it from his hands, offering him an awkward nod as she immediately shut the door on his face.

That had been three years ago, and she liked to think every encounter they’d had since then had gone a bit more smoothly. These days, though, she mostly saw him whenever she turned on the weather channel. Apparently Mr. Supermodel—though according to his misplaced mail and the news, his name was Ben—was a weatherman. 

As she slaved over the Camaro, she wondered if when she turned on the TV that evening she would see what he had to say about the fire hazard that threatened them all. 

Or perhaps she wouldn’t have to wait until she turned on the TV. A few seconds after that thought popped into her head, she heard the radio announcer say his name, alerting everyone listening to the fact that they were about to be told the weather. 

“Good afternoon, Ahch-To, in case you haven’t noticed, it’s a hot day and it’s only going to get hotter,” he said. It should’ve sounded light-hearted and a little chipper like he usually did, but she couldn’t help noticing that her neighbor sounded utterly miserable as he gave the announcement that the weather was heading into the triple digits. “We’re looking at possible record temperatures all the way from Los Angeles up into Monterey and some of the most dangerous fire hazard conditions we’ve seen in more than a decade.”

“Wow, no shit,” she muttered to herself, shutting the oil valve as she looked up toward the radio, and placed her hand on the edge of the car’s hood. “It’s hell on Earth, mate.” Then she was back to working on the car as Ben rambled on the forecast for the remainder of the week, urging people to stay indoors. 

“Avoid lighting fires at all costs. All it takes is one spark.”

“Believe me, mate, I know,” she muttered, sparing a glance at the machinery she’d been using to fix her car, some of which definitely created sparks. Wincing slightly, she looked down into the engine, deciding her work was done for the day. The oil had been changed and the car was once again functional, and while it probably could run more smoothly and needed a paint job, her piece of junk was working. She could probably even take it for a spin right then, but the sun was going down and it was going to be late soon. She didn’t want its first test drive to happen in the middle of the night. 

Her mind made up, she shut the hood and began to clean up her tools. The radio began to play music again, the sweet, ironic sound of Blue Oyster Cult’s  _ Burnin’ for You _ filling the air as she walked out of her shop and into her home for a long-overdue beer. 

The air outside was bone dry and hot. It wasn’t much different inside her house, but at least it cooled the sweat that had been steadily beading on her skin as the time progressed. For some reason, it wasn’t a comforting feeling. There was something off, though she couldn’t tell what it was. Home didn’t feel right, and somehow, she could feel that sneaking feeling that this was the moment for fight or flight. What made her think that, though, she couldn’t say. 

There was no immediate danger. She was probably just experiencing a fucking panic attack. They hit randomly sometimes, right? It wasn’t always provoked by something, sometimes her brain just hated her. Could that be what was happening here? It had to, right?

Shaking off the feeling, she began unzipping the khaki jumpsuit she wore on duty as she walked through the house, looking forward to a hot shower and a long night binge-watching Netflix. Something to give her a brief reprieve from her daily bump and grind before she was back at work on the cars of Ahch-To’s five hundred residents. 

A part of her was happy with this and just wanted to disappear into the California mountains and never be seen again. Another part wanted to get the hell out of dodge. She had a bachelor’s degree in engineering from fucking Stanford and yet she was here. She could do something more, but nothing had happened yet that had made her want to change. 

Maybe something would; maybe it was just a matter of the right set of circumstances and a whole lot of dumb luck. 

Maybe that was how life struck, and all it took was a gust of wind, a spilled cup of coffee, a busted tail pipe…

Or a spark. 

*

Rey woke hours later on her sofa. Outside, the orange glow of sunset flickered as her eyes blinked open, and she groaned at the sound of an emergency alert on her phone.  _ Great _ . It was probably an AMBER Alert from a bigger city nearby. Maybe Monterrey or San Luis Obispo. Either way, she was pissed. 

At least it meant now she could go to bed and not spend the night on her couch and wake with an aching neck. 

Still, curiosity pinged loudly in her thoughts, and she decided to look at the alert, wondering what had happened now that she wouldn’t be able to do anything about. 

The first word she saw after the words, “EMERGENCY ALERT” was “Wildfire.” And that alone was enough to make her freeze. She’d been hearing warnings that the fire hazard was high all day, and now it was two in the morning, and she was up with the news that there was a fire nearby. Reading the rest of the alert, she quickly became awake and aware, her entire body humming with adrenaline and fear as she read that the fire was “East of Highway 101, north of Jakku Road.” 

She was east of Highway 101 and north of Jakku road. It was probably heading right fucking for her.  _ Great.  _ It was  the middle of the night a nd she was about to have to evacuate. Her entire body sprang into action. Quickly pocketing her phone, she ran into the bedroom, the orange light of the sun outside lighting her way a s she grabbed a suitcase from her closet, and began throwing shit in there randomly, breaking briefly only to put on a pair of shoes. 

The second her ratty old red keds were secure on her feet, she ran to the bookshelf by her window, briefly taking in the blazing inferno that was storming up the hill behind her shop. 

The sunlight she’d observed earlier wasn’t sunlight at all. It was firelight. “Holy shit,” she breathed.

The flames were flicking up high towards the tops of trees, homes on the bottom of the hill below already lost to their yellow and orange depths as they licked up toward Rey’s house. She had seconds now before she lost everything she knew, everything she had fought so hard for, and time suddenly became a blur. 

Rey made her way out of her house as fast as her feet would carry her. She grabbed her keys off of a hook by the shop door, but then she was out, making a bee-line for her Camaro with her thumb pressed firmly over the button of her garage door opener as the roar of the fire reached her ears. 

Her pulse raced as she tossed a suitcase in the trunk of the car, blood pumping fast through her veins with every passing second. By the time she was in the driver’s seat, the keys in the ignition, she could feel the heat starting to grow unbearable. Her entire body was tense as she turned the keys, but luckily, for once in the car’s life, the engine started, and she was able to roll out onto the driveway and speed down its slope in the record speed of about five seconds. 

For a moment, nothing seemed amiss. Everything felt almost normal. The trees were swaying in the wind, of course, and her headlights caught a few deer as they ran in the distance, but nothing seemed amiss. She almost would’ve thought she’d imagined it were it not for the tell-tale smell of smoke in the air, and the distinct sense that came with it that was about to get worse. 

There was no sign of a fire or anything else that could’ve gone wrong in the night. Then she turned onto the main road out of town, and drove directly into hell. 

That orange light that had haunted her on her way out of the house lit up the night sky once again. Towering over her on either side of the road were flames forty or fifty feet high, shooting up beyond the tops of trees as the fierce winds blew sparks across the road. She could feel the heat even through her air conditioning blasting cool air her way. Not wanting to invite the smoke fumes into the car, she turned it off as the car sped along the highway, and drove through the hellhole she’d once called home. 

It was a dream. 

It had to be. 

Only in her worst nightmares had she ever conjured forth a vision like this. The roaring was so loud, so intense, she almost wanted to close her eyes and let it take her since she couldn’t see any easy way out of this. There would be no getting out of dodge that was anywhere within the realm of feasibility, but on she drove. 

A part of her worried she would catch fire, that her car would begin to burn and she would die before she even had a chance of evacuation, but as sparks blew above and beneath her, she managed to stay in one piece, easing her vehicle along the two lane road with a surprising lack of cars around her. This was probably the first time she’d ever been completely alone on this road, and she didn’t want to think of why. 

A tiny yelp left her a couple of seconds later as she ran over a burnt up branch that had fallen in the road. Her heart stopped. She would be running into fallen trees if she wasn’t careful. Or worse, a tree would fall on her. If a tree fell in her path, she could probably bullshit her way backwards. If it fell on her—

She didn’t want to think about it. Her best chance at getting out of there was to keep fucking driving, and so on she drove into the terror of the night, orange flames threatening to burst her tires at every turn as she attempted to control her breathing and forced herself to move on. 

All things considered, it was going well. She was making good progress even if she was going ten below the speed limit to be wary of fallen debris. Nothing had obstructed her path or caused her injury, and once she turned off her air conditioning, she found breathing became surprisingly easy. Still, she wished she’d chosen one of the cars in her garage that was built after 2000. At least that way she would be able to recycle air. 

For now, all she had was an unbearable heat that was only growing hotter by the second, and an unending feeling of dread that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times she told herself she would be okay. It only worsened as time went on, making her feel as though she could open her mouth and just start  _ screaming  _ as she wound her car around a turn on the mountain, and finally saw the first sign of another person that she’d seen since she started this trip. 

The car’s tail lights caught her attention first. The red of artificial bulbs stood out amongst the smoky orange hue of the fire some moron must’ve started, and she almost felt relieved as she approached it. Maybe she and this stranger would get through the terror on the road together. Maybe she would buy them a beer when this was over and they made it to the other side alive. 

The stranger’s car, however, wasn’t moving. It wasn’t even going at a speed slower than hers. It was stalled. The engine was on, the car was spitting out gas, but the driver didn’t seem to have their foot on the accelerator. Unfiltered dread filled Rey as she began pressing her palm against her horn. Perhaps they’d passed out at the wheel; maybe the noise would wake them up. 

Surely they’d wake up?

As she approached though, crawling closer and closer as the seconds ticked by, the car didn’t shift, didn’t make a sound or sight indication that it would move. The hazard lights didn’t even come on, and Rey began to fear that the vehicle had been abandoned in the middle of the road. 

Once she got closer, though, pulling up behind the familiar black Accord, she saw the massive silhouette of the driver through the thick smoke shielding the windows between their cars. He was slumped over, his head resting against his steering wheel, and something told her he wasn’t just frustrated with life. 

Whoever was in the car ahead of her was in trouble, and that made her blood run cold as she pulled up behind him. The wind was still howling around them, still whipping up into a frenzy and driving the world into chaos, but for a moment, time stood still. 

There was a choice, one she had to make, in which she could either risk driving into the fire to get around him or try and save his life. If she left her car now, if she left the safety of her vehicle and risked getting burns all over her body and inhaling smoke, she might not even have anything to show for it if the driver was already dead. But if she left her car and saved someone’s life… if he was still breathing and she was able to pull him into her car, that would make it worth it, right?

Gripping the steering wheel tight, she adjusted the gear on the Camaro so that it was parked in the middle of the hell road, her entire body springing into action as she undid her seatbelt, and took the neckline of her shirt in her hand, moving it up so that it covered her nose as she reached for the door handle. “One, two, three,” she whispered to herself, then she pushed it open, nearly screaming at the intensity of the heat that blew her way. 

Flames licked far closer to her than she would’ve liked, sharp yellow reaching out with wicked, heated tendrils as she shrieked and ran forward to the stalled Accord. All around her the wind was roaring, creating the loudest sound she’d ever heard as she rushed forth, breathing hard through her t-shirt as she approached the driver’s side door and immediately wrapped her fingers around the handle. 

It burned like hell. The skin of her fingertips felt like it was being flayed alive, but she kept going. Both she and this stranger would die if she didn’t. She threw open the door, whimpering softly as she observed the figure inside, and realized two things at the exact same time. 

The first was that this man was the size of a god damn refrigerator. He was an absolute tree trunk of a human, and so carrying him was going to be difficult even if strength was one of the things she prided herself on. 

The second was that she knew him. Those dark, raven waves that covered his face where it lay against his steering wheel could only belong to one person. Ben Solo had passed out on the road, and unlike what she’d previously assumed when she’d seen his car was absent from his garage, he hadn’t made it out. He was trapped, slowly dying if not already dead, and her heart began to pound in her chest even faster than it already had been. 

They didn’t know each other well, but the fact that she knew him at all made this personal. “Ben,” she choked, letting the shock pass over her for a split-second too long. 

Before she could even look up, a branch fell from a nearby tree, a loud  _ CRACK!  _ filling the mountainside as it wrenched free from its source, scraping her arm with its heated tendrils on its way down. She cried out in pain, clutching her arm briefly before she observed the blood on her fingers, the flesh that was still fucking boiling from the heat beneath. She’d never thought she’d see her fucking skin boil, but here she was. 

That didn’t matter, though. Ben mattered. She could deal with a little pain, but his fucking life was at stake. 

Fortunately, the branch incident had the benefit of stirring him from his sleep, and he jolted awake with a gasp which was succeeded by a round of coughing so fierce, she was amazed he didn’t cough up blood. Either way, she didn’t hesitate to move, unbuckling his seatbelt before she grabbed his arm and slung it over her shoulders. “Wha… what are you doing?” he slurred, his voice faint and almost impossible to hear beneath the roar of the wind and the flames that licked closer and closer to them with every passing second. 

A tiny shriek escaped her as she stood up, a new wave of sparks attacking her feet as she began to walk forward with him, kicking his car door shut behind her as she went. “Getting you out of here. You passed out behind the wheel and from the looks of it, your car’s stalled,” she replied, grunting as she led him over to the passenger side of her Camaro. “I can’t leave you here.”

He grumbled something in response, but she couldn’t make it out. She didn’t try to either. All of her focus had to go into getting him safely in her car. She could worry about talking to him later. For now, he at least seemed to be participating, his feet were shifting in what seemed to be a half-assed attempt to walk, and he was leaning into her rather than trying to escape. 

Maybe he knew who she was. Maybe he let her do this because she was familiar and he could at least sense there was danger. Occasionally, he gasped from pain when the wind blew fresh waves of hot air right against their flesh, singing the parts of them that weren’t covered by clothes, but other than that, he didn’t make much noise as she finally brought them around to the passenger side of her car, and wrenched open the door before plopping him inside with all the grace of a rhinoceros. 

“Ow…” he moaned as his head hit the steel frame of the window, but she couldn’t feel bad for him right then. She had to get them the hell out of there in one piece.

Once his entire body was tucked inside the car, she slammed the door shut and ran around to her side, her arms covering her head as the roar of the flames grew muffled. The handle on the driver’s side burned again as she touched it, but a few seconds later, she was safely in the car, not even bothering to buckle in as she shifted the gear into drive and hauled ass away from the stalled car in front of her. 

On the passenger side, Ben groaned as he leaned back against the seat, and she winced as she looked over at him. Scorch marks covered his clothes, burns from the embers that had whipped into their faces covered his cheeks, one even crossing over his eye. She had no doubt she looked the same if not worse, and yet she barely felt any pain—even in spite of what must’ve been a third-degree burn on her arm. 

Perhaps it was that thing where in high-adrenaline situations, people became numb. They were numb from the moment it all became too much to the moment things cooled down again, and she was certain that once they were in the clear, she’d be in a world of hurt, but for now, she felt fine. All things considered, she was doing okay, and now her only worry was making sure no trees fell and obstructed their path—or worse, crushed them entirely. 

He groaned again. Rey let go of the steering wheel with one hand and took hold of his as she clung to him in an assurance that they were both alive. Neither of them had died. Somehow, they were both still here, still breathing, and that was a fucking miracle. 

“It’s everywhere,” he breathed, and she watched him blink out of the corner of her eye as he slowly came into lucidity. “Everywhere.”

“Listen, your name is Ben, right?” she asked, figuring that if they were going to be stuck on this drive together, they might as well find some other way to pass the time than to exist in sheer terror. 

“Yeah,” he replied sleepily, groaning as he looked out the window. “Rey?”

“Talk to me until you feel awake.” She swallowed her nerves, gripping the steering wheel tight as she turned them onto the next road, the smoke so thick they could hardly see as they drove on. “How are you feeling?”

Another groan. “Hot.” 

“I bet. You were roasting in there.”

“Mmmm.”

“There’ll be water at the hospital. I’m sorry I don’t have any. My house was nearly on fire when I left it.”

He shook his head. “No, no, it’s fine. I’m not on the brink of death anymore.”

“I was worried about you for a second there. You looked dead when I found you.”

Seeming more lucid than ever, Ben sat up straight, his eyes finding her face as he breathed deeply. “I’m not,” he said quietly, as if realizing for the first time that he was still alive. “Thank you.”

“Let’s try and keep it that way, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he whispered, the car accelerating again as they made it through a patch of smoke and drove on through the mountain.

“Tell me something about you that I don’t know,” Rey said as they drove around a tree that had half fallen into the road, wincing as the tire bumped over the edge of it. All of her strength, all of her focus, went into keeping herself from shrieking her alarm. 

“There could be a lot you don’t know,” he replied, then she did manage a little whimper as a branch fell on her hood. A shower of sparks washed over her windshield, then the branch was gone, and suddenly she felt his hand on her shoulder. “But, uh, you should know I like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.”

That managed to get a laugh out of her, and combined with his touch, she felt herself relax as she drove them through a fresh wave of smoke. “Give me something serious.”

“I love Rocky Horror. I go to costume showings every year on Halloween. Full Frankenfurter.” His voice was deadpan, stone-cold serious, and she couldn’t help more laughter falling from her lips as she tried to picture him dressed as Frankenfurter. 

That image combined with the one of him doing their morning weather reports? Hysterical.

“Are you serious?” She already knew the answer, but she still needed to hear the truth. She needed to hear that confirmation. It was a distraction from their situation, after all. 

“Dead serious.”

“You don’t go by yourself, do you?”

“No. I usually take someone from the station with me,” he admitted, then his hand left her shoulder. “I wonder where they all are right now.”

An awkward silence passed, both of them aware as they looked at all of the chaos around them. The car was hot, impossibly hot, and a part of her was still afraid that somehow they’d break down and be lost in the flames. 

“I bet it’s gone,” she whispered after a while, her breathing shaky as they drove through another thick cloud of smoke. “I fought for it—my shop. There was a—lengthy—legal battle. I didn’t have a lot growing up, and so to finally have something that’s mine?”

Another blur filled her vision, and it took her far too long to realize that the blur was caused by tears welling in her eyes as it hit her for the first time that she was losing everything. All she was worth, all she had, was in her car with her right now. Everything else was burning, and by the time the sun rose, it would all be ash. 

Ben’s mouth shifted out of the corner of her eye. “I’m so sorry.”

“Everyone leaves me, I didn’t think every _ thing _ would, too.” She tasted the salty tang of a tear on her tongue. “Everything I own is in this fucking car.”

“So once we get to the hospital?”

“I don’t know where I’ll go. I have a couple of friends in town, but they’re probably scrambling to find somewhere to live now, too.”

“This is insane.”

“I know.”

He fell silent for a moment, then he swallowed, though judging by the sound of it, it was more like a gulp. “I, uh, might be able to help you with that.”

“I don’t want your pity. We barely know each other.”

“It’s not pity. You saved my life. You risked what little you have left to save me,” he said, then his hand was back on her shoulder, his thumb brushing gently over the wound on her arm as she winced. “And you’re going to have one hell of a scar as a result. You didn’t have to do that. That’s going to be a shit medical bill.”

“I’ve had worse.”

“My point is, I want to save you. You’ve already helped me. Please,” he whispered. “Let me help you.”

As the smoke finally seemed to start clearing, the fire simmering down on the next curve, she spared him a glance. “You’re sure about this?”

“Yeah, we’ll talk about it more when we get to safety, okay?”

“Okay,” she replied, then they drove on through the mountain, headed toward the coast where hopefully, safety would await them, and the danger would pass. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said Tuesdays and Fridays but I'm going to be too busy tomorrow night to post so this is here one day early. Happy holidays.

The first hospital they stumbled upon was surprisingly not that full of people in their situation. Sure, there were a few fire victims here and there, but for the most part, it was almost quiet. Rey didn’t want to think about why, but she had a sinking feeling, a really deep, personal feeling that somehow it had little to do with how many people were wounded. 

That emergency alert hadn’t woken everyone, had it?

All she knew was that she and Ben were separated the second they walked through the door. He was taken off somewhere to be treated for smoke inhalation, and she was left alone in a semi private room in the ER. She could see him off in the distance from on the other side of her curtain, and they kept assuring her that he was alive, but still, she worried. 

According to the doctors, Rey had been given a second-degree burn by the falling tree branch, and she was lucky it wasn’t worse. Had the branch impacted her any harder she would’ve likely been given either a third-degree burn or a much longer gash. All in all, she supposed she was lucky. It could have been so much worse than it was, but she was alive and so was the man that she rescued from the road.

It was a small miracle, but a miracle nonetheless.

She was bandaged up and taken care of within a couple of hours. The staff still wanted to monitor her for smoke inhalation, and although she assured them that wasn’t necessary, they persisted. In the end, she was told that she would be there for at least several hours. That would’ve been fine, but then they told her that Ben was looking at a much longer stay. They wanted to keep him overnight for how much smoke he had inhaled and the fact that he passed out at the wheel—and since she wasn’t related to him, they wouldn’t let her see him. 

Sure, they weren’t close, but she was invested in his well-being now. She had saved him and she was going to see this through. After all, no one else had come into the emergency room to see if he was all right. A part of her wondered why that was, but she knew it was not her place to pry. Still, it was only human to be curious, and maybe after they got to know each other a little better she would ask him.

All she could do was deal with her own wounds. A weird black layer of skin had developed over the burn in the hours since she’d gotten it, and she watched in fascination as the doctors put some sort of ointment on it. She was no medical professional, but it looked like some serious shit. It was also kind of uncomfortable, but it didn’t hurt any less than the actual burn, which had started to hurt once the adrenaline wore off. 

Eventually, though, she was lying back on a bed with her arm bandaged up and a deep-seated sense of loss. Her mind kept drifting to the shop she’d worked so hard to earn, the clothes, food, and other belongings she’d worked so hard so save up for. All that money, and it was wasted. 

Once the doctors gave her the all-clear, she decided to at least try and see Ben. Luckily by then, shey’d agreed to let her through, since he was no longer in any immediate danger.

His room was mostly empty. Ben wasn’t even wearing a hospital gown, but he did have an oxygen mask on, attached to a tank, and a beaten down look on his face that made her feel a fresh wave of sympathy. 

“Knock, knock,” she said as she walked in the room, then she could see little hints of his dimples appearing from behind the little mask he was breathing through. 

“Hi,” he replied, sitting up a little straighter, but taking care not to disturb the oxygen tank he was attached to. “How’s the arm?”

“Been better.” She moved closer to him, crossing her arms over her chest as she gestured to the tank next to him. “They had me worried about you when they said I couldn’t see you.”

“They’re just monitoring my oxygen,” he said. “There was a bunch of medical bullshit I didn’t really understand, but basically they’re worried since I passed out at the wheel, yada, yada.”

“They’re worried for a reason, Ben.” With an apprehensive look, she sat down at the edge of his bed, feeling as if she’d just done something strangely intimate as her weight pressed into the mattress, and her eyes flickered up to meet his. “You inhaled a lot of smoke. You weren’t exactly lucid those first couple minutes I had you in my car.”

Shaking his head, Ben leaned back against the mattress. “I just want to go home.”

“Home’s gone, Ben.”

“Not entirely.”

“What do you mean?”

“You saved my life.” He laughed softly, then he swallowed, coughing slightly as he finished. “Do you have anywhere to stay?”

“What tonight? No. They already released me, so I was just planning on sleeping in my car until I could get a hold of my friends. I don’t know where they’re staying.”

An almost offended look appeared on his face, and he straightened up again. “Rey, If you need a place to stay—” She froze, and he seemed to notice, too. “You can say no, but my parents have a beach house in San Luis Obispo. Well, just outside of it. It’s a quiet little place. Might be good to get our heads out of this place for a couple of days.”

“Ben, I couldn’t possibly—”

“Please. You saved my life.” He held out a hand. “Let me help you with yours.”

Pausing for a moment, Rey took in a slow, deep breath. “Ben, I don’t know if I should.” She felt guilty just thinking about it, like she was taking advantage of him. Was that her years of feeling guilty just for asking her foster father for an extra crumb off the dinner table talking, or did she actually have something to feel bad for? “I just—”

“ _ Please _ . I-I-I’m not a bad roommate. It’d just be for a couple of days until you can find a new place.”

It wasn’t a bad idea. Her Camaro, as much as she loved it, was no place to spend an evening. If Ben had somewhere they could hunker down for the night and maybe the next several nights, perhaps she ought to take him up on it. “Okay,” she said after a while. “Let’s do it.”   


“Yeah?”

“When they let you go, just give me the address, and we’ll go.”

His entire face fell, but hints of a smile tugged at his lips as he bowed his head. “Thank you.”

“No.” She cleared her throat. “Thank you. I need to stop letting my pride get in the way of accepting help from people.”

Ben sat up then, looking concerned as he leaned forward and adjusted the oxygen mask on his face. A silence passed between them, neither one speaking, both unsure of what to say, but then he held out his hand, his fingers fluttering open as her vision shifted downward, watching his palm fall open, waiting to be filled. “I was the same way once.” 

The mask obscured his face, but she could see a world of pain in his eyes. There wasn’t much she could say she knew about her neighbor—well, he was her roommate now, she supposed—but she supposed that he, like her, was a bit of a loner. In all the years they’d lived next to each other, she had hardly seen him bring anyone over. An older couple with graying hair—his parents most likely—had come over once, but otherwise, channel eleven’s weatherman had no guests. 

They both kept to themselves, and if she had her reasons, she supposed he did, too. 

With one last glance towards him, those soulful eyes boring into hers, she placed her palm in his, the two engaging in a gentle hand-hold as they looked at one another. “I guess we’re both fucked then,” she replied.

“No, not fucked. Just recovering. Just breathing.”

Her breath caught at that, his thumb rubbing gently over the back of hers as she searched for the next thing to say. How did she respond to that? How were they supposed to talk? They hardly knew one another, and yet it was easy to speak with him, the words just seemed to flow, until suddenly, they didn’t. The weight of what they’d both just said was settling in the room, and they were just digesting what they’d heard. 

It wasn’t anything bigger than that. 

“Can I ask what you lost?” she asked, her voice having grown quiet in the minute that passed. “In the fire.”

For a moment, it was almost as if she could see the flames in his eyes. He looked haunted, as if he too were seeing it just behind his corneas with every passing second. Odds were, he was. “Almost lost my life, but not much else.”

“But your home was right next to mine. Surely you at least lost that.”

“It was a bachelor pad I never used for its intended purpose. I didn’t have much there. Maybe a bunch of work suits, but I keep most of those in my dressing room,” he admitted, shaking his head as he looked at her. “I don’t have much that means a lot to me.”

She wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but then a knock sounded from his door, and both of their attentions were stolen by the sight of a short, blonde woman in blue scrubs entering the room, a clipboard in her hand and a shy smile on her face. “Hi, sorry to interrupt. I just need to take his vitals?” she asked, causing Rey and Ben to look at one another as if asking permission for something. 

“I’ll just go—“ Rey started to say, preparing to let go of his hand as she spoke, but then he tugged, those over large fingers of his grasping hers as her eyes were yet again drawn to his. 

They were pleading. He didn’t want her to leave, he wanted her to stay, but she wasn’t sure. She didn’t know him all that well, and all the nurse would be doing was taking his vitals, but still, she felt weird, as if she’d overstayed her welcome. They needed snacks for the road anyway, so she might as well just…

“I’ll be back,” she promised him, patting the back of his hand with her free one. “We need food for the road anyway, don’t we?”

He sighed, nodding as he pulled back, and watched her hop off his bed, making room for the nurse to come by. “Get rum too, I’ll pay you back.”

An amused scoff left her. “Why rum?”

“We should drink,” he told her, point blank as if it were obvious. “To celebrate being alive.”

“Oh.”

“You don’t have to.”

She smiled, a tiny one that only just parted her lips. “No, I want to. I’ll grab coke, too. We can celebrate.”

He returned her smile with a grin of his own, and it occurred to her that Ben Solo had a nice smile, one she rather loved to see. “I’ll see you later?”

“You will,” she promised him, then she made her way out the door, walking out of the hospital toward her Camaro in the parking lot, trying to clear the smoke from her mind as she went, and trying desperately to forget the pain that still stung at her arm. 

*

Her mind was numb as she walked through the aisles of the nearest liquor store. Technically, groceries were more important, but rum was nonperishable and fresh food wasn’t. One would have to come before the other. It only made sense. 

The prices of the rum were a bit higher than she would’ve liked, and while Ben had said he’d pay her back, she didn’t want to take advantage of him. He deserved better than that, but apparently the motherfucker was better off than she was, so maybe he could afford a thirty dollar bottle of rum. 

Grabbing the largest bottle she could find from the shelf, she made her way to the front of the store, hoping she didn’t look as fucking depressed as she felt as the bored-looking college student rang up her things. Well, her  _ thing  _ was a more accurate statement, since she just had the one bottle, but still, as he bagged it up, she kept her face down, forcing herself to think happy thoughts as she made her way back toward her car. 

As she placed her keys in the lock on the door handle, her phone buzzed in her back pocket with a text. A great sigh fell from her lips as she opened the door and set the liquor bottle down. 

Maybe: Ben  
  
Hey, Rey, it's Ben. They're going to let me go in a couple of hours. Everything okay?  
  
Yeah, it's fine. How'd you get my number?  
  
You gave it to me after the, uh, incident.  
  


A flush colored her cheeks as she recalled the incident in which he’d gotten her gynecologist bill. That had been—well—an interesting encounter to say the least, but given the fact that they were going to be spending their foreseeable future together, she had a feeling things were going to get a lot worse. Hell, they’d probably find themselves walking out of the shower with nothing but a towel on and shocking the hell out of the other person. 

At least if that had to happen, Ben wasn’t bad to look at. He was tall, broad, and muscular, and that was bound to be something with naught but the cotton of a towel wrapped around him. 

Forcing herself to stop picturing her neighbor naked, Rey tried to come up with a reply to his text, her fingers hovering anxiously over the keyboard for several seconds before she realized she needed to know how he was doing. He had to be doing good if he was being let out of the hospital, right?

Ben  
  
Right 😅 how are you?  
  
I’m doing okay. Still a bit headachey, but the nurse says that’s probably related to the shiner I got when I passed out.  
  
Ouch  
  
Yeah, it sucks. Anyway, how’s the grocery trip going?  
  
Rum acquired. Heading into food now.  
  
You’d think food would be more important  
  
I want to make it clear that I’m just teasing.  
  
Dont worry. I got you. But yeah I have priorities 🙌  
  
😂 think you could pick up BLT supplies?  
  
As long as you don’t mind bargain brand bread.  
  
Food is food  
  


That last text made her snort a little in amusement. He was good at making her laugh, actually. Ben had this talent for making her feel more at ease with their situation. Sure, everything was awful now, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t find joy even though everything she’d ever held dear had been destroyed. 

There was more to life after this. There had to be. 

Shaking her head, she made her way into the grocery store. With Ben’s request for BLT supplies fresh on her mind, she began walking through the aisles of bread, searching for whichever one was cheapest. 

*

By the time she got back from the grocery store, Rey was famished. In fact, she was so hungry, she’d opened up a bag of Lay’s salt and vinegar flavored chips and started munching on them on the walk to Ben’s room. According to her phone, they had another forty-five minutes before the doctors would check on him and elect to let him go, but she still hurried to meet him. 

Upon arrival, she couldn’t help but notice that he seemed half asleep. His eyes were closed, his arms folded against his chest as he leaned back against the bed, face pointed up at the ceiling as if he were staring at it, but his chest was rising and falling almost evenly. It was just off rhythm enough that she could tell he was still awake, and she almost felt guilty for even thinking about waking him. 

After all they’d been through, he deserved a rest.  _ Hell _ , she did, too. A part of her wanted to crawl into that bed with him—not because she was needing to cuddle, but because she just wanted to lie down, and that was only human, right? There was nothing weird about that. Nothing at all. 

As she stepped further into the room, Ben stirred, blinking slowly awake as he took her in, then a tiny smile tugged at the corners of his mouth through his oxygen mask. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself.”

“How was the store?”

“Crowded. People were buying water in bulk because they’re preparing to evacuate.”

A frown formed on his face, his features falling into disappointment as he processed this information. “Fuck…”

She nodded as she approached, then she sat down in one of the chairs near his bedside. “I know. It’s some real shit end of the stick stuff.”

“I wish this weren’t happening.”

“Me too, mate. I’ve had that thought more times than I can count.”

“All we can do is make the best of it, right?”

Fighting back the urge to take his hand again, the corners of her mouth twitched up in a smile. “Yeah.”

It was odd, really, how much she wanted to hold his hand. Every time he spoke, every time he tried to make her feel better about their utterly fucked situation, she found her hand being pulled toward his like a magnet. There was just something easy about it, about allowing herself to be pulled toward him, and she liked being close to him. They’d lived next door to one another for years, and yet somehow only just started talking because of this fire. 

“What’s on your mind?” he asked, sitting up a little straighter. “Don’t tell me it’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” she promised, holding up a hand. “I just, I thought that doing this would be hard, but the more we talk the less afraid I am of whatever’s going to happen.”

This time, he was the one fighting back a smile. His face was tired, his entire body sunk in, but he still managed to perk up a little at the sound of that. “I kinda trust you, too.”

They fell into a peaceful silence after that, Ben opting to turn on the news as they watched footage of their little town burning to dust. It took all of her strength not to cry as she watched the helicopter flyovers, as she learned that two people had already lost their lives, as she watched homes burn to the ground and collapse. 

Somewhere out there, her shop was ash, and she just prayed that she wouldn’t have to see footage of it burning. She wasn’t ready for that yet, she could barely stand to see all the destruction and devastation brought about by the fire. It destroyed everything it touched, with no care or regard for what was in its way. That was how forces of nature worked, wasn’t it? They didn’t operate on the whims of man. 

They just took and took and took until everything was dust. 

“We can rebuild,” Ben said quietly after a while, but even he seemed disinclined to believe it. “I know we can.”

She didn’t say anything in response. They just sat together like that in the numbing silence, watching everything they knew crumble to the ground, a devastation so intense, so brutal that they couldn’t wrap their heads around it taking it ruthlessly. 

But that was all part of life, wasn’t it? Death and destruction and decay all led to something more; they weren’t the end. They gave way to new life, fed new beings, new dreams. This wasn’t the end. It was just a fork in the road. This was leading somewhere. She just had to be willing to follow it, to see it through, and she had a feeling that no matter what it was, she would be doing it with the neighbor she’d spared from the flames. 

Their fate, their rebirth, was tied together, and only time itself would be able to tell how. 


	3. Chapter 3

The drive north through San Luis Obispo was actually rather nice. On their left, whenever the highway dipped close enough, she could see the ocean through her window, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as she watched the waves lap at the shore. 

Well, perhaps lapping was too light a word. The waves were tall, crashing into the shore almost viciously as surfers weaved in and out of them and beach goers watched. There weren’t that many people now, the coast tended to be a bit colder than it was inland. As a result, the late-September air drove those who craved the heat back indoors but drawing out the ones who liked it cold. 

She almost wished they could join them, but they had groceries to unpack and a home to settle into. According to Ben, his house was also situated on the beach, so she’d be able to dig her toes in the sand and calm down from the hellish day she’d had soon enough, but still. She just wanted to forget everything that had happened. If just one minute could go by where Rey didn’t feel like there was a lump of sobs threatening to burst forth from her throat, perhaps this would be easier. 

Alas, easy had never been an adjective she was familiar with, and so she was burdened by constant thoughts of the near-death experience she’d had that morning. Ben tried to comfort her, she knew he tried, but they still hardly knew one another and there was only so much he could do. He was good, though, really good. A little shy, a little held back, but he didn’t push when she wasn’t pulling. He respected her, and that was enough. 

“So what’s your house like?” she asked, then she paused, holding up a finger even as she continued to grip the steering wheel. “It’s got to be expensive, right? The housing market in this state is up the ass.”

Snorting his amusement, Ben propped his head on his hand, his elbow on the sill of her open window as the wind blew back his hair, and he closed his eyes, almost as if he were picturing it. “It’s expensive, yes, but like I said. I don’t own it.”

Oh yeah, he’d said it was his parents’ place. “So your parents must be loaded, right?”

At this, he stiffened. “I guess.”

They approached a curve in the road, and as they slowed down, she turned to spare a look at him. “Touchy subject?”

“Get me a little drunk and I’ll tell you everything, but in summary, we didn’t always get along for a lot of reasons.”

“The rich thing being one of them?”

“Yep.”

“So how come you have access to this place now?” she asked, pausing as she watched him tense up again out of the corner of her eye. “Did you talk to them?”

He nodded. “We’re better now. I called and told them what happened. They said the keys were under the doormat.”

“That’s good.”

A shaky breath escaping him, he nodded his agreement. “Yeah, it is.” Then he laughed. “I’m just glad they said yes.”

“Well, they love you, don’t they?”

“Yeah.”

“Ben, that’s what parents do. If they’re any good, they’re supposed to be willing to do anything for you even if you’re pissed at one another.” At least, that was how she thought it worked. She hadn’t been raised with two parents. She didn’t even really have one. “I wouldn’t know.”

He made a low sound of acknowledgement. “Sounds like we have the same problem in the opposite direction.”

“Yeah, we do,” she replied, then Ben pointed to an upcoming exit ramp. 

“Take this, you’re gonna have to turn right after but it’ll get us there in about five minutes.”

“Okay.”

As she turned onto the exit, he took in a heavy breath, the kind that made her think everything he’d just said and was going to say would have some kind of weight to it. “I hope this works.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, I just… I really hope we can make the most of this.”

“Unless the ocean can brew wildfires, I think we’ll be fine,” she replied, making the turn he’d instructed her to a moment earlier. 

“There are more things than just wildfires that can make your life a living hell.”

Confusion welling within her, she wanted to ask him what that meant, but before she could get the opportunity to, he pointed to another street he wanted her to turn down. The conversation fell to the house, to what it was like, and her brief concern was forgotten, burned up just like everything else in her life thus far. She could only hope that somehow, through what they were doing together, her life would rise from the ashes, something new born of the remains of the destruction. 

Time would be the only one to tell, and so they drove on into the uncertainty, both of them tense with anticipation but too exhausted to bother with showing it.

*

The house he’d been telling her about was actually much more normal looking than she was expecting. Perhaps the most eccentric thing about it was the cerulean shutters that lined the window and the roof of the same shade, but it was normal sized. It was just one story, built of a combination of sturdy brick and stone that she hoped measured up to earthquake safety code—god knew the last thing they needed was another fucking disaster—and it looked surprisingly homey. 

The minute the car was parked in the driveway, Rey hopped out, her hands finding their way to her hips as she stared at the rather adorable building. “This is gorgeous.”

“I’ll tell mom you liked the color. Dad was always fussing with her about it,” he replied as he too got out, then made for her back door to unload the groceries. As she began to laugh from his response, he took hold of the bag, then frowned. “Shit.”

“What?”

“My clothes.” His face grew mournful, and his gaze fell somewhere in the distant mountains, where smoke could still be seen dusting the air just beyond them. “They’re all in my car.”

_ Oh.  _ He was fucked. All he had were his nasty, ash riddled, slightly burnt clothes that he’d put on when he made his mad dash to safety and nothing else. It was unfortunate, and yet Rey was fighting back laughter. “Looks like we’ll have to go shopping again tomorrow then.” She joined him in the back of the car, grabbing bags of groceries as well as her suitcase. “I don’t think my clothes will fit you.”

An amused snort left him as he grabbed hold of the rum bottle she’d picked out. “I don’t know. I think I’d look cute in a crop top.”

“I don’t own any crop tops.”

“Whatever you do have would be a crop top on me,” he pointed out, causing her to shake her head as he walked ahead of her, kicking her door shut as he went. 

She would give Ben this: he could be quite charming when he wanted to be. 

“Have you called your office at all?” she asked him as they approached the front deck. “I know you were supposed to be on tonight.” 

He quirked an eyebrow. “Oh? You know that?”

“You’re on every night, you ass.” She crossed her arms in spite of the groceries hanging from her wrists. “And every morning.”

“Hmm.”

“You know, I heard you last night talking about the fire hazard,” she said as he set down the groceries, and lifted up the cute little “ _ life’s a beach”  _ doormat. “I didn’t think much of it at the time, but now it feels like an omen.”

At this, he paused, the keys jangling in his hand for a couple of seconds as he turned back to look at her, memories dancing behind his corneas. “I almost forgot.”

“Is work a bore?”

“Kind of, yeah.” He pushed the key into the lock. “But yes, I called the office. Once I explained that I was in the hospital they gave me the next three days off.”

“You’re out of the hospital now, though,” she reminded him. 

Ben looked back at her as he pushed the door open, then bent down to retrieve his groceries. “I nearly died. I’m not working until I have to.” He cleared his throat. “Come on, let’s unpack, then I’ll give you the tour.”

Nodding her response, Rey lifted her things, and together, they walked through the door into the rest of the house. The first of what she suspected would be many nights together kicking off with the most mundane of things—unpacking some fucking groceries.

*

Inside, the house was a typical beach house. Seashells and fake starfish decorated the walls, brightly colored furniture—but not obscenely bright—was everywhere, and the walls were either white and textured or some pretty shade that complimented the cerulean outside. Little decor pieces with dumb little beach puns were everywhere on the kitchen counters, giving her and Ben plenty to laugh about as they unpacked everything, saving their liquor bottle for last. 

That liquor bottle wound up being the only thing they took with them outside when they went to picnic out on the beach. Rey wanted to feel the sand on her toes, and her new roommate had a craving for the ocean breeze. Hence why they took a blanket from one of the supply closets and laid it out on the beach, watching the sun set over the horizon as the Pacific Ocean tried in vain to steal away the sand. 

Everything around them looked, ironically, like it was on fire. If she closed her eyes, she could convince herself that they were still trapped on that mountain, that they were doomed to die at any minute and their continued existence was just some sick stroke of luck. Whenever she opened her eyes, though, those pink and orange hues were just sand, and it was completely harmless. 

Ben passed her the rum bottle, and she took a sip, letting the liquor numb her mind and body as she winced from how strong it was. “God, this stuff’s awful.”

“We probably should’ve put it in with the coke.”

“You’re probably right,” she replied, then she took another sip before she handed it back to him. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I inhaled a lot of smoke.” He paused then, catching sight of the concerned furrow of her brow. “I’ll be fine.”

“I feel like I have to watch you tonight. Make sure you don’t die on me.”

He snorted. “The hospital wouldn’t have let me go if I wasn’t okay.”

She shook her head. “Maybe so, but you’re currently my only way out, so aside from the fact that I think you’re a halfway decent person to be around, I want you to stay alive.”

They fell quiet for a moment as he took a sip of the liquor, then he looked back at her. “Rey, I-I don’t think I said this earlier, but I’m sorry for your loss.” Another sip. “God, that’s awful.”

“I know.”

“If there’s anything I can do for you, just let me know.”

“Anything?”

“Anything. No terms, no conditions, just tell me what you need and I’ll provide it.”

She gave him a weak smile. “Ben, the one thing I need is impossible for even the richest, most wealthy of men to provide.”

“Your home?”

“Yes.” She sniffled then, her eyes brimming with tears she hadn’t allowed herself the opportunity to shed. 

Always intuitive, Ben handed her the rum bottle, unscrewing the cap before she took it from his hand, and their fingers brushed gently on the transfer, little sand grains rubbing in the nonexistent space between them. “We’ll have to find you a new one.”

“How?” She sniffled again, this time allowing a single tear to fall forth onto her cheeks. “I have nothing.”

“That’s not true,” he protested as she sipped from the bottle, her head growing dizzier by the minute. “You have a pretty sick car if you ask me.”

Laughter bubbled past the tears, and she handed him the bottle again as they stared out at the ocean, watching the waves erode the shore. “Thank you. I built the engine myself.”

“No way.”

“What do you think I do in that shop?” she asked, then she winced. “Or rather, what did you think I  _ did? _ ”

He chuckled softly to himself. “I thought you just did repairs.”

“No, the previous owner had this beautiful car rusting in the corner of the shop. I always used to admire it — thought that once upon a time it must have been something beautiful.” She could feel a mist form over her eyes as they searched her memories for the first time she’d seen that car. She’d been so young, but no more innocent. The foster system had made sure of that. “When I finally got control over the shop, I spent all my spare time working on that Camaro to pass my days. It was good work. Got to a point where it became my main car and then I managed to make it look nice. Then it saved us both from hell.” 

“You did a really good job.”

Another sniffle. “Thank you.”

“I could never do something that cool.”

At this, she scoffed. “You’re on television every day.”

“Yeah, but I think it’s cool. Take the compliment, Rey.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“You’re kind of funny, you know that?” She asked as he handed her the bottle again, and she took a longer sip than she had previously. “It’s a nice quality.”

An amused sound left him as he watched her drink what must’ve been a shot’s worth before setting it down. He almost even looked impressed. “I’ve never been told that before.”

The corners of her mouth twitched. “Maybe you’ve been hanging around the wrong people.”

He stared at her for a moment, then his hand reached up, and she felt her breathing stop as his thumb wiped away the tears that had fallen onto her cheeks. First he took away the right, then the left, his skin brushing against hers so softly, so tenderly, she almost thought she’d imagined it. The moment didn’t feel real, it felt like it was made up, like something from a dream, but it felt wonderful. It made her feel good for the first time since she’d fallen asleep the night before. 

The man beside Rey was staring at her in the aftermath, his eyes flickering briefly down to the teardrops he’d collected on his thumb before he wiped them off on his shirt. “There. Now your tears are gone.”

“Why’d you do that?”

“I wanted to make you forget that you were crying for a second.” He shrugged. “I have it pretty easy. I just need to shop for some clothes and move houses. Most of my life isn’t that important to me, but you? You fought for something and you lost it. You’re miserable and you saved my life, so I’m going to do everything I can to try and take some of that pain you’re feeling away.”

She sniffled again, but blinked back the tears that threatened to come forth as she nodded her agreement. This time, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, taking the bottle in his other hand, and sipping from it. “You’re a good man, too, Ben,” she promised him. “Much better than you think.”

“Yeah?”

“You care,” she replied, her words beginning to slur as she looked at him. “You’re good.”

“You’re good, too,” he said as he laid back against the blanket. 

She laughed as she joined him, both of them staring up at the sky as it turned an increasingly dark shade of blue, and the first hints of the stars began to appear at the very darkest parts. Pointing up at the sky, Rey gave him a small laugh. “Look at that.” 

Following her gaze, Ben’s finger joined hers in her peripheral vision, both of them pointing upward as the sun set a little further beneath the waves, and their eyes adjusted to the encroaching darkness. “That’s Jupiter.”

“Yeah?” He looked at her then.

“In college I minored in astronomy. Most of my courses were geography and geology, but occasionally?” She turned her head to look at him, finding that he was already staring at her when she did so. The fact that her heart started beating a little faster wasn’t lost on her, but she elected to ignore it. They’d been through a lot that day. Her mind was riddled with exhaustion, so maybe random things were making her heart race. “I sometimes spent time in astronomy labs memorizing the stars. My first kiss was in the university observatory.”

“Where’d you go to school?”

“Stanford.”

Scoffing in disbelief, she shook her head as she looked back up at the darkening twilight. “You went to Stanford?”

“I did.”

Hearing this, she laughed. “So did I. When did you graduate?”

“2012. You?”

“2016. We must’ve just missed each other.” 

They chuckled softly together, then they slowly began to fall silent as the last of the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, and they were left fully in the gray that came after. More stars slowly began to appear in the sky, creating constellations, shapes, and patterns that even she began to recognize. Neither of them spoke, though, maintaining that silence that settled over them in the aftermath of their conversation. 

At one point, she felt his hand brush against hers. For a second, she thought it must’ve been an accident, that he hadn’t meant to do it, but then she nudged her hand against his, and her next thought was that he was trying to hold her hand. Then the next second passed, he handed her the bottle of rum, and a mixture of relief and disappointment welled in her chest. 

Did she want him to touch her? Did she want to be held by him? A part of her did, yearned for that sweet, sweet contact, but another part was afraid of what it would mean if she let him in. They were barely friends, and so allowing those thoughts in her head was a terrible idea. 

All she did was take the rum bottle from him, their fingers brushing against one another as she then raised the bottle to her lips, and sipped the courage she would need to hold his hand. They’d been through hell, she reminded herself, and so it made perfect sense to want to be comforted. It didn’t have to be anything bigger than that. She gulped down a little more than she meant to, then she handed it back to him. 

For a few precious minutes—probably more like fifteen or twenty though, since the sky became dark—she and Ben sat there like that, passing the bottle between them as they stared up at the stars and alcohol began to muddle their brains. She started to feel numb, distant as the time went on, to the point where she’d nearly forgotten the fire and all it had taken from them and was just left with pain. 

The aching feeling wasn’t helped by the chill of the night air settling over them, and as they passed the bottle between them again, Rey realized that her companion was warm. His hand brushed against hers on that last pass, and as she sipped it again—the bottle now only a quarter full—she decided that life was too short for her fear. 

Setting the bottle down in the sand, Rey turned to Ben, lifting her head as she reached down for his hand, but before she could lace her fingers with his, he surprised her. The hand she was reaching for moved away, but before fear could take root, he wrapped it around her shoulders instead, pulling her head into the corner of his shoulder and chest as he wrapped his other arm around her waist, their eyes never abandoning the stars all the while. 

“I’m cold, too,” he said, his explanation saying everything and nothing at all even as he shivered slightly around her. 

“How’d you know I was?” 

The hand at her waist came up to hold hers, providing her with the precise sort of contact she’d been searching for. “Your hand was cold.”

“W-we should probably head inside.”

“You think so?”

“Mmhmm.”

“I’m warming up,” he slurred, and she realized that she too could feel that familiar sensation of something in her body igniting from the alcohol. 

“You’re just drunk,” she slurred back. 

“Mmm, but you are warm.”

“As are you, but we should still g-go.”

He sighed, his head falling back against the sand. “Maybe in a few more minutes. I like the sound of the waves.”

The ocean was indeed providing a lovely backdrop for them, the soothing in and out of the crashing of each one against the shore was rhythmic enough that she could time her breathing to it, could sync it with nature and slowly calm herself down. Closing her eyes, she focused on her breathing, Ben’s warmth surrounding her like a shield from the outside cold. 

Calm came in an instant, her body melting against his as she hooked a leg lazily around one of his, spreading the warmth further through her body. She yawned. “We should go…” she whispered, but all she heard in response was the steady, constant rhythm of his breathing, and she knew there was no point in protesting. 

She wouldn’t have had the energy to try and get them up anyway. Seconds after realizing Ben had fallen asleep, she followed, sinking into the blissful oblivion that came with sleep as she and this man she barely knew held one another through the night, the ocean and their body heat sending them to sleep as the stars watched unmoved. 


	4. Chapter 4

At some point in the night, Rey woke up to realize that one of them had pulled the picnic blanket over their bodies. She woke up warm, surrounded by heat, and a little foggy. But it felt good, and so to the soothing rise and fall of the chest-pillow she was resting on, she let herself fall back into sleep, the waves of the nearby ocean and the breeze calming her back into oblivion. 

That, however, was the last of the peace she suspected she would see for a good while. 

When her eyes opened next, there was fire everywhere. She was driving with Ben, but they were trapped. No matter how many times they drove down that road or how many different turns they made, they somehow wound up right back at the start, the flames getting closer to the road with every passing second. 

Sometimes she would scream. She would howl, beg for mercy, her voice coarse as she cried out to gods that weren’t there, and the man in the passenger seat remained unconscious all the while. If he was alive or not, she couldn’t tell, but she knew he wasn’t of any use to her like this, knocked out and possibly dead. 

They were going to die, but she kept pushing on, driving the car on through the night as the fire burned hotter and brighter around them, her fingers burnt to the steering wheel as she screamed for help one last time—

A burning branch snapped off of one of the trees she’d passed fifty times, landing right on the roof of the car and crushing them both instantly. 

Instead of dying, though, instead of feeling any kind of pain or burn from the impact, she gasped awake, whimpering for help as a pair of warm, sturdy arms embraced her and held her against an equally firm chest. Raw panic was shooting through her, tears welling in her eyes and spilling over onto her cheeks as hot breath blew past her ear, words she couldn’t understand whispered to her in a soothing voice as she slowly began to realize that it was all a dream. 

“Shhh,” the voice—Ben’s voice—whispered. “You’re safe.” 

She looked up to see his pale face lit by the growing dawn, a faint gray light illuminating the constellations created by his moles. “B-Ben?” Clutching at his shirt desperately with one hand, she buried her face in his chest, needing to feel surrounded by how alive he was in the real world. “Oh thank god.”

“Bad dream?”

“You have no idea.”

“Want to talk about it?” he asked, and she could tell he was trying to be supportive, but she just wasn’t ready for that yet. She needed time to calm down and collect her thoughts; she didn’t need to deal with more of this yet. 

She shook her head. “No,” she replied, sniffling again as she blinked more tears from her eyes and onto his shirt. “I just want you to hold me.”

He stiffened beside her. “Are you sure?”

“Just hold me and don’t stop breathing,” she said, and ordinarily that would’ve been a weird request, but he seemed to understand, and he fell quiet, the only sound in her ears once more belonging to the ocean lapping at the shore. 

Her breathing began to even out then—not to the point of sleep, she wasn’t ready to sleep yet, and she sighed as his hand began to trace the ridges of her spine. It was odd, she thought, how kind and willing he was to help her, but she’d saved his life, and he felt that he owed her a debt. She thought that notion was ridiculous, but at least it helped explain his behavior. 

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I needed this.”

“My dreams weren’t exactly sunshine and happiness either,” he admits. “Right now everything looks like it came straight out of hell.”

“Me too,” she replied, then she sniffled again as she bunched his shirt further in her fist. “I dreamt that we were on that mountain again, but we did the trail on a loop. Every time we would get close to the end, it would start us over. It just kept repeating like some sick, twisted version of  _ Groundhog Day _ until a branch fell on us and we—” Sniffle. “We—”

He shushed her, his muscles flexing around her again as one of his hands found its way into her hair. “Don’t say it.”

“It’s too late, I already thought about it.”

“Stop thinking,” he quipped back, earning himself the first laugh she’d managed since waking up. 

For a couple of seconds after that, he fell quiet, almost suspiciously so, and she tilted her head up to get a glimpse at his face. “What’s wrong?”

“You laughed.”

“And?”

“You have a nice laugh.”

“Thank you?”

More laughter spilled from his lips. “I think if you can laugh, if I can laugh, maybe that’s a sign that we’ll make it out of this okay.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He paused, then she watched his head tilt up, his gaze drawn toward the direction of their neglected beach house. “We should probably get inside.”

“You’re probably right.” And yet, she was frowning. “Can we wait a few more minutes?” 

Ben looked down at her again, their eyes meeting as he nodded slowly, the first hints of daylight igniting the gold in his irises. “Yeah, we can wait a few more minutes,” he said. His muscles flexed around her as he held her a little more tightly. “Just a few.”

After a few more minutes, Rey sniffled, her thoughts drifting away from the peaceful oblivion that came with lying by the oceanside and toward the nightmare she had. The death at the end wasn’t real, but the destruction was. Everything she held dear was still gone, and all she had now was the Camaro parked out front. “I don’t know what to do,” she whispered, her body tensing as she held tightly to his shirt. “I thought I’d be ready to face things by now, but everything’s still gone.”

“Rey, we can take a day to recover.”

“No one died, Ben, that’d be ridiculous.” She shook her head. “I’m being a baby.”

He scoffed as if she’d just said the most preposterous thing in the world. “Rey, you didn’t lose a person, you lost your home. You are allowed to grieve. There are more things in life to lose than other people that can hurt just as much.”

One of his hands found its way into her hair, calming her in spite of the conflict that was still warring in her brain. Slowly, she realized he was right. She’d put everything into that repair shop. Everything. It was hers, and she’d worked so hard for it, and to have it gone? Yeah, of course it felt like someone had died, of course there was a deep pit in her stomach that she didn’t know how to fill. That kind of thing hurt plain and simple, no matter what had happened. 

“You’re right,” she said, then she pulled back a little, taking a moment to look at him. Well, to be precise, she got  _ distracted  _ by him. His face was admittedly nice to look at, and like last night when they’d been drunk, she found herself distracted by the moles that scattered on his face, the full, plump lips that were softly parted to allow air to pass through them. He was kind of beautiful, and now she was having that thought while sober—well, hungover, if the nausea was anything to go by— _ shit.  _ “Do you know how to drive a car like mine?”

“Manual transmission?”

“Yeah.”

“Afraid not.”

She hummed. “We’ll have to teach you.” Then she pulled back further. “But I asked because I think we should go to the nearest Target and get you some clothes.”

“Good point, but maybe let’s make breakfast first?”

Rey’s stomach growled, her hand coming up to touch the skin over the angry organ as she winced from that familiar, gnawing feeling. “You’re probably right.”

He grinned. “I’ll cook.”

“No, Ben, I can’t—”

“You saved my life, remember?” Pushing away from her, he slowly rose to his feet, offering her his hand once he was standing. “Thanks to you, I’m not ash.”

“Ben—”

“Please,” he replied, bending down to pick up their mostly empty rum bottle with his other hand while he waited for her to take the first one. “I want to do this. Besides…” His grin grew wider. “I make a pretty mean omelet.”

*

Ben’s omelets were a fucking curse. No food should make a person moan like that, and yet the second she took a bite out of what he’d made for her that morning, she was whimpering as if she were having the best sex of her life. It wasn’t fair, but given how stiff he got each time she made a sound, maybe it wasn’t as  _ unfair  _ as she’d initially thought it would be. 

He was a damn good cook, so maybe she could start accepting all of the things he was willing to do for her in return for what she’d done for him. Besides, seeing him alive and well, moving about on his feet and laughing like he was the sun itself was wonderful. Doing things for her seemed to bring him joy, and so she figured the least she could do was let him. She’d given him a second chance at life, whatever he wanted to do with it wasn’t her decision to make. 

Once the overly horny breakfast from heaven was over, they hopped in her car again, Ben covering himself with her deodorant before they did so. His clothes smelled like smoke and body odor. Hers were fine since she’d actually brought some with her, but since she’d used the deodorant first, they now both smelled like Spring Mist and Lilac. 

Hopefully it would hide the fact that they’d been through hell. Hopefully. 

The Target wasn’t too crowded when they got there. Of course, it was also half past ten and most people were at work, but she was still glad they didn’t have to face many people regardless. 

“So what kind of stuff do you wear?” she asked, looking him up and down as he browsed the shelves and let his hands glide over the tips of hangers. “I always see you in suits on your little weather reports.”

He snorted at that. “That’s because it's a workplace dress code.” 

“But what do you wear otherwise?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, when you’re not running from wildfire or broadcasting.” She held up a white button down, waving it in front of him for a second before he took it from her hands. “So what do you wear normally when you’re a peasant like the rest of us?”

He snorted. “I wouldn’t say peasant.” But the corners of his mouth tilted up anyway, a clear indication of a smile if she ever saw one. 

“I’m joking, Ben.”

“I know, but it isn’t anything interesting,” he replied, grabbing hold of a warm-looking blue and white flannel. “I kind of dress like a lumberjack when I’m not working.”

“Really?”

“Flannel is comfortable.”

“Well, yeah, but I would’ve pegged you for an athletic wear, nothing but basketball shorts kind of guy.”

“You haven’t pegged me at all yet, Rey,” he teased, tossing her a wink as she froze, gaping at him as he walked away, and made his way toward the jeans. 

A shiver ran down her spine at his innuendo, then she followed him to the jeans, trying desperately not to conjure to mind the image of the man before her—the local fucking weatherman of all people—on his knees begging to take her dildo up his ass. Her dildo, of course, had been tragically lost in the fire, but the Internet was a magical place. She could easily find a new one. 

It depended on whether or not he was joking.

*

Eventually, they emerged from Target with a week’s worth of clothes for Ben and a couple of bottles of wine. Rey also found time to replenish her underwear supply, which had been dwindling since the fire took most of it, and also bought pads and tampons in bulk.  _ Thank you, trauma _ , she thought,  _ for making me unable to remember the last time my uterus fucked me over.  _

Maybe she also snuck condoms into her basket when he wasn’t looking. Maybe she didn’t. 

On the drive back, she turned on the radio, both of them singing along to Bon Jovi as a sense of calm washed over them.  _ Livin’ on a Prayer  _ was the most unexpected thing to ever bring her out of a funk, and she was grateful for it. 

Or rather, she was until the radio shifted from music to something else. Once the last note ended, a voice announced the news would be started, and a radio host gave them a devastating reminder of what they’d been through. 

She looked over at Ben as they pulled up to the house, both of them falling into melancholy as they heard the true extent of the devastation thus far. 

_ “With five hundred homes and businesses destroyed, half a dozen people confirmed dead, and ten more missing, the Ahch-To Fire is one of the deadliest on record. And it shows no signs of stopping.” _

Of course it wouldn’t. Why would it? Their luck had only been shit so far. 

“ _ Nearby towns of Chandrila, Corellia, and Tatooine are all under mandatory evacuation orders as a repeat of Ahch-To’s fate remains on everyone’s minds.” _

Rey wanted to punch a wall. It wasn’t fair, it just wasn’t fucking fair. She had lost so much, so had Ben, and now more people were going to lose everything to the flames. She didn’t know anyone in those towns, but the sympathy she felt for them as she parked the car in the beach house driveway was overwhelming. 

As her knuckles went white on the steering wheel, Ben laid a hand over hers, calming her as she struggled to think of what to do next. A deep and heavy sigh left her lips, then she laced for fingers with his, feeling a renewed sense of calm wash over her at his touch. 

She tried not to think about what that meant.

“Are you okay?“ Ben asked, his voice sincere and deep, shooting somehow directly between her legs.

She nodded. “Yeah, fine.“ Then she shut off the car's engine, and opened the door. “Can we talk about this inside?”

“Of course,” he replied, then together they got out of the car and began unloading their new things, Rey working diligently to hide her condoms with the rosé they’d bought as they then made their way into the house. 

It wasn’t an easy task. Every so often, Ben would look at her, smiling as if he were trying to simply reassure her that everything would be okay, and he always seemed to look right when she was trying to hide the damn condoms. She wasn’t sure why she was so ashamed; having condoms on hand was just part of being a responsible adult. 

Yet as they finally walked into the house together, she got the feeling that if he chose to confront her about it, it would be more than that. 

Was she going crazy? Clearly something was going on in her brain that made her think that maybe, just maybe, she was starting to feel something for the man. A part of her was worried that it was just because of what had happened yesterday, because she had saved him, and now they were trapped in this situation together with no way out in the foreseeable future. Anxiety welled in her chest, her whole body tense as she realized that was probably not the whole story. 

Whatever was happening was just the beginning, but the very idea of it scared her. Everyone in her life had walked out on her at some point, except for her best friends, people she couldn’t even reach at this moment thanks to the fire, and so that made her a bit more scared, a bit more hesitant to enter into any kind of relationship—even a friendship.

Still, she needed someone close, and having been held by Ben last night had been remarkable. His arms were firm and warm, the perfect thing to hold her in an embrace. If she could spend every night like that, she would.

Perhaps at the bare minimum, Rey could ask him to stay with her another night, or even every night until the nightmares abated. Odds were, the nightmares would not leave her for a very long time, but maybe he could also hold her for a very long time, or at least until they got back on their feet again.

“My parents want to come up tomorrow,“ Ben said as they walked through the door, sounding almost nervous as he spared her a glance. “I hope you don’t mind the company.”

Rey shook her head, then she gave him a smile. “I don’t mind at all,“ she replied. “I wouldn’t hate meeting the parents of a man who saved my ass.“

He laughed as they walked through the door. “Technically, you saved mine first.” 

Together, they made their way into the kitchen, and though she could not see his face she knew that he, like she, had a grin on his face wide enough to light up the sun.

“Technically,” she repeated, trying not to react visibly to the memory.

Whether he sensed her worry or not, he didn’t react, and instead placed the wine bottles in the liquor cabinet, revealing that there was in fact plenty of alcohol already in stock in the house. “Don’t worry, my parents are normal people.”

“And possibly alcoholics?” 

“What?”

She pointed to the fully stocked liquor cabinet. “I can see at least two bottles of bourbon and three different types of gin.”

“Oh, that.” He ran a hand through his hair, biting his lip as he closed the cabinet doors. “I forgot about that. My parents rarely ever drink. I think we’ve had some of those since I was in college.”

“Oh.”

“Like I said, they’re normal people, I promise,” he replied, then he walked back over to where she was setting the last of their things on the counter. “Are you okay?”

Nodding slowly, Rey managed to get herself together. It wasn’t his fault that she was like this, the fire had truly screwed with her mind. He’d passed out and been a bit out of it through the whole thing, but she was wide fucking awake, and she had a burn on her arm to prove it. Said burn also needed its bandage changed as per doctor’s orders, but it could wait. “I’m fine.”

“Okay.” He didn’t sound too much like he believed her, but he didn’t seem to want to fight her on it either. “Let’s put the last of this stuff away and… I don’t know, maybe walk on the beach? I know we just spent the night out there, but it’s a lot nicer in daylight.”

A renewed sense of confidence filling her, Rey began to help him put away the remaining groceries as well as his clothes. “Deal, but we’re not sleeping on the beach tonight.”

He snorted his amusement. “It’s a deal,” he said, then together, they finished their work, and made their way out onto the beach. 

*

The sun was high in the sky, occasionally obscured by clouds but still shining bright nonetheless. Rey found herself watching the man beside her; how he moved and breathed, how easily he seemed to be taking all of this. A part of her wished she was that well adjusted, but Ben never looked down on her for it. 

She was a stranger to him just two days ago, and now here he was, ready to do anything to help her, all because she had saved his life. When this man was grateful, he certainly knew how to show it. 

At some point on their walk, their hands laced together, both of them clutching the other perhaps a bit more tightly than was necessary, but in a manner that was still hopefully platonic all the same. He didn’t seem to notice even as his thumb brushed over hers. The same feeling made her feel as if her skin had caught fire—not that she would ever tell him. 

She was placing the blame for her sudden burgeoning attraction to him on the fact that he’d always been kind of good looking and they now had shared trauma. That was it. There wasn’t anything deeper. There couldn’t be. For the time being, they lived together, and she didn’t want to mess that up before it started. 

“Hey can I ask you a kind of weird question?” he asked suddenly, looking rather sheepish as their walk came to a halt, the surf lapping hungrily at their feet as it took sand out from under them with its steady approach and retreat. 

Unsure where he was going with that, she shrugged. “Shoot.”

“Would you—uh—would you—” An overly dramatic groan left him as he gesticulated vaguely with the hand that wasn’t holding hers. “Fuck it. Would you stay with me tonight? I-I know it sounds weird, but last night when I was holding you, I-I just felt—“

“Safe,” she finished, knowing that was what he meant because she felt that, too. “You felt safe.”

His breath left him in a rush. “Yes.”

“I felt safe with you, too,” she replied, squeezing his hand. “Ben, you can stay with me for as long as you need. I think with what we went through we kind of need it. Besides, you’re warm.”

“So are you.”

“Good, then we’re in agreement.” She was the one smiling this time, resting her other hand on his arm while she leaned into him, pretending the shiver passing through her spine when he laid his free hand over hers was just from the cold of the Pacific. “See you in the bedroom tonight.”

Another snort escaped him. “That sounded completely innocent.”

“You’re the one who made a joke about pegging earlier, mister,” she reminded her companion, causing him to chuckle as they resumed their walk down the water’s edge. “It’s too bad all my dildos burned up in the fire.”

Making jokes about the situation that had torn her life apart didn’t seem like something she would’ve wanted to do just five minutes ago, but somehow, it made her feel better, less insane and more… free. Ben seemed to pick up on it, too, for he released her hand, and wrapped his arm around her waist instead, allowing Rey to do the same to him as they walked down the beach like they were a couple. “Pity.”

“Truly,” she replied, finding herself increasingly unsure of just how she would make it through this without making some sort of move on him. This was death, sweet death, and if this was what rose from the ashes of the fire, she wasn’t mad at it—so long as it didn’t somehow burn the ashes further into dust. 


	5. Chapter 5

As they lay in bed that night, Rey found herself astonished that Ben managed to fall asleep first. Seconds after they’d gotten in bed and shut out the lights, his eyes were closed and his chest was rising and falling evenly with that hypnotic rhythm of sleep. 

It was kind of unfair. How come he got to rest while she was awake dealing with her nightmares? 

She couldn’t be too mad at him, though, it wasn’t his fault she was dealing with this. At least she had his warmth to comfort her through it all. At least she had his arms around her waist, securing her and making her feel a little more safe, a little more at ease. 

For all the bad that had happened, Ben was good company. He was kind, thoughtful, gorgeous— _ stop it.  _

She really didn’t need to be thinking those kinds of thoughts, but as her hand wrapped around his in the darkness, his fingers laced with hers. In spite of the massive size difference between their hands, they fit, as if two pieces of different puzzles somehow completed each other. A tiny giggle left her lips, then she turned slightly in his arms, trying to catch a glimpse of his face in the silver of the moonlight that was shining down on them through the window of Ben’s bedroom, the window facing the beach. 

“Ben?” she asked softly, turning her head a little closer to try and hear his response, but all she heard was the distant, roaring waves lapping hungrily at the shore. 

That, however, was soon interrupted by the gentle rustle of fabric as he moved beneath it, then there was a feeling of lips on her skin, and the distinct sound of a kiss. It took her brain several seconds to realize that he had kissed her cheek, but instead of freezing like she thought she would, all of that pent up energy expelled itself from her body in the form of a sigh, and his face nuzzled into her hair as his breathing began to even out. “Goodnight,” he murmured sleepily, nearly causing her to giggle again as she closed her eyes. 

“Yeah, goodnight.” Then she slowly began to drift off into sleep, wondering just what this was that was rising from the ashes of that fire, what sort of phoenix was about to take flight and change their lives forever. 

*

When she woke, it was to the sound of the front door opening. For some reason, that didn’t quite register to her, except for the fact that the noise was annoying. All it did was make her turn further into the broad chest in front of her, and bury her face in Ben’s muscles. His chin adjusted itself to rest on top of her head, and for a moment, all was peaceful. 

They were granted about forty-five more seconds in which the sun was just beginning to shine through the window, the seagulls outside were beginning their morning cry, and the ocean continued its gentle roar. Forty-five seconds of blissful ignorance, then she heard it.

An older woman’s voice. “Ben?”

The first voice was soon followed by the gruff sound of a man’s. “ _ Ben?” _

Terror shot through her, but before she could get up, she heard footsteps approaching the door, and she knew no matter what she did that they were caught. She couldn’t even remember if he’d told his parents she was with him. Even if he had, what would they say when they found him in bed with her?

This was not the first impression she wanted to make, but then there was a knock on the door, and just as Rey sat up, the woman gently pressed it open, her eyes sweeping the room for her son for about half a second before she spotted the woman sitting in his bed. “Oh.”

“This isn’t what it looks like,” she blurted, unsure of what else to say. Maybe it didn’t look like anything at all. They  _ were  _ fully clothed. 

“I’m sure,” a man whose face bore a striking resemblance to Ben’s muttered. Christ, they looked alike. He had his mother’s eyes and dark hair, but there was something about his father that looked almost painfully like him. 

Ben’s mother smacked him on the chest as the previously unmoving lump beside Rey finally began to stir into consciousness. “I take it you’re the woman who saved my son.”

It took Rey a couple of seconds to find her voice. “I-I am. We just—we didn’t want to be alone.”

At long last, Ben also sat up beside her, his raven waves covering his face as he looked at his parents, squinting through the light in his freshly opened eyes. “Mom?”

“And your dad, too,” his father replied, looking down at his son with a knowing grin. Apparently he didn’t believe Rey when she said that they just didn’t want to be alone. Great. 

As she turned, she watched Ben grow pale, well, more pale—if that was even possible—and he suddenly pulled back away from Rey, shifting as far to the other side of the bed near the wall. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

Oh, how she craved the sweet embrace of death. 

“I’m sure it isn’t, Ben,” his mother replied, making her speculate that she didn’t believe it wasn’t anything special either. “We brought food into the kitchen. Help us unload when you get the chance. I’d very much like to meet this girl that’s in your bed.”

With that, she and his father made their way from the room, and Rey’s entire body turned ruby red from embarrassment, her cheeks flushing pink as she took a pillow and buried her face in it. “I take it we slept in until lunch time.”

There was another rustle of fabric as Ben shifted towards his nightstand, then his hand rested on her shoulder, and she lowered the pillow. “Yeah, we did.”

“Fuck.”

“Tell me about it. This is not how I wanted you to meet my parents.”

Another rush of heat filled her at the thought that he wanted her to meet his parents, but she pushed those weirdly fluffy, sweet feelings aside in favor of actually climbing out of bed. He just meant his parents were coming over and they knew his parents were coming over. That was all. There wasn’t anything deeper behind that sentence, right? “Speaking of, we should get out of bed and introduce ourselves properly, hmm?”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” He threw back the curtains and stood up, both of them facing the other. “They are about to give me so much hell.”

“What about me?”

Making his way over to the bedroom door ahead of her, Ben laughed. “I’m their son. Trust me, I will be the one to catch hell.”

A smile tugged at her lips as she followed him out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, fighting back the urge to take his hand as she watched his parents put food in their fridge. His mother was still unloading what she’d brought them, but his father began to cook up something on a frying pan. The smell of various spices filled the air, hints of garlic and some sort of pepper, which she found relaxing. 

It had been far too long since she had a meal like this. Ben was a great cook, but since they only just began this arrangement of theirs, she didn’t know the full range he had. Just what were those enormous hands of his capable of?

“Mom? Dad? This is Rey,” he said as they approached, both coming to a stop by the end of the counter. “Rey, this is Han and Leia Organa-Solo. They’re my parents, and this is the introduction we should’ve had.”

Han just snorted his amusement, then he flipped over whatever tortilla wrapped concoction he was making in the frying pan. “We’re just giving you a hard time, kid.”

“Ben, I think  _ you _ are putting more stress on this whole situation than anyone else,” his mother replied, then she grabbed a bottle of white wine from the fridge. “I figured it had something to do with what you’d been through.”

Well, that was a relief. It was the truth after all, but she still felt off thinking about it as such. Somehow, though she couldn’t quite explain it, what happened last night had felt like more than just some cuddle for warmth. He’d kissed her cheek. Sure, it was only her cheek, but he’d still kissed her hadn’t he? She was still haunted by it, still yearning to feel it again. 

“What did you go through?” Han asked, flipping the first tortilla-wrapped thing he’d made onto a plate and commencing work on a second. “Ben told us you were both in the hospital, but he wouldn’t tell us much else.”

“Just that the two of you were okay.”

“Yeah, your mother’s been worried sick ever since.”

Leia scoffed. “I wasn’t the one pacing in our living room for half an hour after Ben told us they checked in to a hospital.”

A disgruntled hum left Ben’s father, causing him and Rey to laugh a little as they took their seats in the barstools at the counter. “We were okay,” he promised them, then he looked at the woman who’d saved him. “Almost didn’t make it, but thanks to Rey, I did. I passed out behind the wheel from the smoke and Rey saved me.”

“And taught him a lesson in blasting his air conditioning while driving through a wildfire,” Rey replied, causing a warm chuckle to rise from their companions. “Hopefully he won’t do it again.”

“ _ Anyway— _ “ He sent a mocking glare her way. “She pulled up behind me, and there was plenty of room for her to go around, but Rey pulled me out of that car and brought me into hers. She’s gonna have a nasty scar to prove it.”

“Scar?” Leia aaked, sounding sufficiently alarmed. 

Rey flinched at the memory, the pain from the branch cutting into her arm still a bit too fresh. If she closed her eyes, she could visualize it burning through the layers of her skin, igniting her bones as she struggled to save Ben. It was something she wanted desperately to forget, but as she looked down at the bandage on her bare arm, she knew she wouldn’t any time soon. “Yeah, a small branch fell on me while I was rescuing Ben, I just told myself to keep pushing through it even though it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt in my life.”

“Jesus,” Han muttered to himself, then he flopped the second tortilla onto a plate, a little bit of melted cheese spilling out of its end. Ah. Quesadillas. She needed that. “Ben, did you get anything?”

“Just smoke inhalation,” he replied, then she felt his hand rest on her arm just beneath the bandage. “Mind if I take a look?”

“Go ahead. I probably need to change the bandage anyway.” 

Nodding subtly, he picked at the edge of the gauze until he was able to peel it back and examine her wound. She couldn’t see it well from where she sat, but Ben could. She had no doubt he would be able to see it perfectly clearly, and so instead, she focused her vision on his face, watching as he slowly pressed a finger on the skin just above the wound, keeping a careful eye on her reaction. 

When she didn’t react at all, he pulled away, smiling warmly. “It’s good. It’s barely even puffy anymore.”

“Oh great.”

“Kind of has a cool shape, too.”

“How?”

He shrugged. “It looks like two hands reaching out for each other.” His fingers pressed gently over the still healing skin, and she really should’ve stopped him, but even as a slight sting filled her arm, she couldn’t help but feel as if his touch was  _ right  _ somehow. What it was, she didn’t know, but she had a wound that looked like two hands touching one another and his touch caused her no pain. 

It almost sounded like some dumb trick of fate out of some fantasy novel she’d read in high school. It didn’t feel real, and yet, it was. 

Their eyes met a second later, a sort of reverie taking them over as they stared at one another, neither of them seeming to want to be the first one to break away. A state of hypnosis washed over them, his fingers slowly pulling away from her arm but not leaving her entirely. 

“What happened after the hospital?” Leia’s voice asked, interrupting the stare between them as they both flinched. Rey couldn’t speak for the man beside her, but hers was with her full mind and body. “Am I interrupting something?”

Ben spoke half a second before she did. “No — ”

“Nothing at all.”

“No.”

Rey laughed with a hint of nervousness as Leia looked at her husband, who was already putting away the dishes he’d used up while cooking. Oh no, she knew that stare, she could read every single line of it, catch every bit of the subtext in its meaning. “Nothing, hmm?”

“Nothing at all,” Han replied. 

“We bought groceries.” It was blurted out before she could think to stop herself. “And then we went back and…”

“Accidentally fell asleep on the beach,” Ben admitted, his cheeks flushing a rather pretty shade of pink as Rey watched. “On a picnic blanket. Kind of a miracle we didn’t get arrested.”

Another chuckle left Han. “You wouldn’t unless they thought you were having sex.” He looked between his son and his rescuer. “Would anyone have reason to assume you were — ?”

“ _ Dad! _ ” 

Both of his parents were fucking chortling, much to her mortification. They were openly losing it without care for either of their opinions, and she knew that no matter what she said, they were going to believe that she and Ben were more intimately involved than either of them was willing or ready to admit.  _ Great.  _

“Could we please just eat lunch?” she asked, even as Ben’s parents continued their laughter. 

His hand came to rest on her back, out of view of his parents’ eyes. “We can,” he replied, then he reached for his quesadilla, insisting she do the same, and together, the two of them began to eat, listening intently as his parents finally came down from their laughter and engaged them in another conversation. 

*

The visit went by surprisingly easily. The more time she spent with Han and Leia, the faster she felt comfortable with them. They looked at her like she was one of the family, and perhaps also a bit like she’d just brought them the sun and the moon. Perhaps in a way she had. Wasn’t that how some people described people they loved infinitely? Including the kind of love that involved their own children?

By the time they were getting ready to say goodbye, she almost forgot she was even worried in the first place. She barely even remembered the trauma of his parents catching them in bed together that morning. 

“I love your mother. She’s so fucking funny.” 

“Please…” Ben sounded pitiful, almost miserable as he whined, slumping against the doorframe as they looked out over the back deck of the house at the ocean, watching its waves eat away at the beach. “She was tormenting me the entire time.”

“She was not  _ tormenting  _ you.”

A grin still parted his lips even as he protested. “She was. I’m just astonished that you’d save me from my fiery death just to condemn me to my mother.”

At this, she tensed up. A part of her felt like an idiot for it, too. Just because his parents were good didn’t mean he couldn’t make a joke about wishing dark happenings on them. Yet the discomfort persisted, holding onto them both as if they were captive. “Ben, I didn’t know my parents,” she said, following silent as she looked out at the setting sun, watching it fall beneath the horizon. “I don’t think I ever will.“

He froze then. Well, he’d frozen before, even that very day, but it still hurt to see it. She didn’t want to see him in pain even if she was trying to just make herself more comfortable. She trusted him now, she firmly believed that they were friends. Yeah, friends, and nothing more. They were just two friends, bound by shared trauma.

“What happened?“

“You know how it is for foster kids. We get the shit end of the stick,“ she replied, giving him a sad smile as she straightened up. “Listen, we just don’t get the same opportunities. Most of us don’t even get two parents, let alone one consistent one. I know you’re just joking, but consider how lucky you are, take stock of how fortunate you are to have what you have.“ She gestures to the big house around them, the house which is situated on a beach in a neighborhood with a rather pricey real estate value. “You got this. I had to fight my ass off for a garage that is now ash.“

He nodded, taking everything she had said to heart. She had only really known him for a matter of days, but he was already handling it better than the other people she trusted and told about her past. “Yeah, but that doesn't mean we didn’t have our own issues.” Taking in a deep breath, he leaned back against the wall. “I mean, it was kind of my fault. Football coach in high school was a manipulative dick, said he could get me places, that I could go pro if I did everything he said.”

There was a haunted look in his eyes as he said this, causing worry to spike in Rey’s brain. What had happened to this man that left him looking almost as sad as she did when he had two parents that loved him?

“Rey, he turned me against them. He made me doubt their love at every turn, made me want to fight to get away from them, and god help me, I did.” Scoffing, he turned his eyes away from her. “I don’t even think I wanted what he was offering. I wanted to study the earth, the rocks, the weather, I never wanted to be an athlete. My parents just—I love them, but they always had something other than me on their minds.”

“Do you think that made it easier for your coach to get in your head?”

Ben made a tiny noise, though what its meaning was, she couldn’t tell. “Snoke. His name was Leonard Snoke, and yes, it probably did make it easier for him to get inside my head. What I hate the most is that I let him.” His hands picked anxiously at the hem of his shirt as he spoke, the blue flannel not giving him much as he tried to pull apart the threads. “I let him tear apart my family until it was time for me to go away to college. Now I’m…” 

His voice trailed off, then he nodded, but not to her, to himself. “We came out stronger on the other side. Enough time has passed that we almost can forget it happened. Snoke’s been fired—he was fired after my senior year, and I–I really just want to move on, but I always feel so guilty when I look at them.”

Rey placed a hand on his arm, causing his eyes to look back at hers once more. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”

“You wouldn’t. We’ve only really known each other for two days.”

“Nearly three.”

“Yeah.” He stopped picking at the hem of his shirt, his posture straightening as he spoke. “Nearly three.” 

“It goes to show there are more ways to suffer than just losing your parents.”

“Many more.”

“What do you think will happen when the fire stops burning and we have to rebuild?”

“You’re welcome to stay as long as you like, you know,” he told her. “I’m sure if worse comes to worst, we can work out some kind of roommate situation.”

“Like we’re in college?”

A tiny grin tugged at the corners of his mouth, the depressive content of the previous conversation melting away into something a little lighter. “Yeah, exactly like that.” Then his hand moved to cover hers, his massive fucking baseball glove of an appendage filling her vision as her breath caught, and she found herself scooting a little bit closer. “Or maybe given how we’ve been around one another lately, something else.”

Heat filled her entire body, and she knew she was blushing as he turned to face her, his mouth shifting in that way specific to him she’d noticed when she brought him home from the hospital. “I-I-I suppose so.”

“Tell me, Rey, do you have—no—do you want me to stay in your bed again tonight?” He stepped closer, his other hand taking hold of her arm as he pulled her to him. “Because I really like having you there. Not just because you’re a comforting presence, but I can’t help but feel—“

“As if it’s right?” She nodded. “Yeah. I’ve felt the same way.” Then she laid a hand upon his cheek, unsure why she’d made the gesture, why she’d done something so bold, then she shrugged.  _ Fuck it.  _ “Holding you makes me feel safe. Kind of like home used to.”

A weak laugh escaped him. “You hardly know me.”

“Relax, Ben, I’m not proposing marriage. I am simply suggesting that we—“

“What?”

God, what was she even trying to say? She knew what it was, but her mind was hesitant to swim free of the deep ocean of denial. “I just believe that we should take advantage of the situation we’re in. Make the most of it. Wildfires, when they’re naturally occurring, burn the landscape so it can grow anew. Let’s grow something with these ashes, Ben, let’s turn our old lives into something good.”

That seemed to resonate with him. “Okay, how do we do that?”

“Kiss me.”

“Huh?”

“Kiss me. Something tells me you taste better than alcohol and I want to forget what it feels like to burn,” she told him, waiting patiently for him to react. 

Before he did or said anything, he took a deep breath. “And you’re sure you want me to?”

“I’m sure,” she replied, then he shrugged, muttering a series of curses under his breath before he leaned in and kissed her. 

She was right. He tasted better than the alcohol. Ben tasted like fall, something warm and peaceful, and with a hint of cherries from the bag of them his parents had brought them. It was her favorite taste in the world, she decided. Maybe someday when she kissed him after he had morning breath she would change her mind, but this was not that day. 

That day was still a ways off unless he wanted to kiss her when they got out of bed the next day. A part of her wanted him to. His kiss was quickly making her forget everything on her mind. The fire, the hospital, the never ending fear melted away, and for a few precious moments, the world just became her and him, the way she thought it should’ve been. 

He was kissing her; he wanted to kiss her. His tongue was sweeping into her mouth, tasting her as her head bent back, and it grew deeper. 

There was some soft sort of emotion to the way he kissed her. It was sweet and held nothing back, like a picture worth a thousand words. He wasn’t hesitant or guarded, his shields were down, and as she felt him smile into it, she realized hers were too. 

The fire had destroyed everything; one spark created a blaze which uprooted their lives and changed everything as they knew it. But another spark had formed from that fire, and this flame was a much more gentle burn. This wasn’t going to destroy and take until it had stolen all the oxygen from the air. No, this was going to create warmth, this was going to allow them to heal together, as one, and she hoped nothing would happen that would change that. 

Their lives were starting to come back together again, only this time the strands were weaving themselves tight as they bound her and Ben body and soul. 


	6. Chapter 6

Bliss, however, was cut a bit short. Seconds later, just as the kiss was growing deeper, Ben pulled away with concern in his eyes, but also hope. “Wait,” he breathed, panting slightly. “Are you sure you’re all right with this?”

She was also panting, her chest heaving with every breath, and yet it was easier to breathe then it ever had been before.  _ Ben _ made it easier to breathe. That may have had something to do with the fact that the moment he asked his question, she knew her answer.

And yet they still remained silent for a minute, both staring into each other's eyes as though they could not believe what just happened. Neither of them seemed to understand it fully, but she could see a little spark of joy in his eyes, a tiny hint of hope that maybe this wasn’t the end. That they still had a ways to go before it could ever be considered over.

The answer she gave him was not in the form of words. What he was looking for transcended just a yes, it was a confirmation that there would be more. She knew this because it was the same thing that she was thinking, and so with the world's slightest nod, Rey leaned forward, taking Ben’s face in her hands, then she kissed him again.

Their second kiss was slow. This one did not burn; it simmered–it melted slowly—the dying embers of a great flame, but they were not dying in the sense that this was over. No, they were dying in the sense that this was going to be reborn, just like everything else in their lives, just like them.

It was truly astounding to see just how easily she found herself kissing him. Somehow they fit together perfectly in spite of having quite a difference in body types and facial features. His lips were full, round, and plush, and she never spent too much time looking at her own, but they weren’t quite like his. He had at least six inches on her, and she was not short for a woman. Rey had always prided herself at her height, but Ben did make her look much shorter than she actually was. He was built like a refrigerator, and she wasn’t underweight by any means, but she was on the lean side.

It shouldn’t have been so damn easy for them to fit together, and yet it was perfect. She had kissed men before, had kissed women too, and none of those people had ever matched the sheer fire this ignited in her soul

Eventually, they pulled away again, Ben’s eyes never leaving hers as soon as they opened. For a moment, he just looked at her with shock, awe, and disbelief. Then he smiled, this impossible, beautiful smile, and he laughed, a gentle chuckle that reverberated through her entire body, piercing somewhere deep in her soul.

_ Yeah, he wanted that, too. _

“I take it you’re okay with this then?“ he asked, his voice still a little shy and timid, like he was somehow still afraid that she would reject him.

Fat chance.

She nodded furiously, grinning back at him as she brushed a piece of his hair from his face. “Ben, I want this.”

More laughter spilled from his lips, then he took her hands and his, tugging her away from the deck and back into the house, a stupidly wide grin on his face the entire time. “I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s… been a while.“

The minute they got inside she was on him again, pinning him to a wall as her lips attacked his jaw. “Don’t worry, neither do I.” And she meant that, she had no fucking clue what she was doing. It had really been a while since the last time she had been with somebody, long enough that she was having trouble remembering the name of the last person she slept with. That was probably a sign.

“And you’re sure you wanna do this?“ Damn him and those stupid, inquisitive eyes of his, she just wanted to take his clothes off. It was sweet though, how concerned he was for her; not many partners had been.

“When we’ve been through hell together,” she replied. “I think we ought to celebrate.” She kissed the corner of his mouth. “We are alive. We are going to live another day to rebuild our lives. Let’s live them.” Then she pulled him into another proper kiss, letting him lift her from the ground and spin her away toward the bedroom. 

The entire walk over, he never let her go—his grip tight, his hands steady, and Rey began to think that this was just a preview; this was just the beginning and he had a whole lot more in store for her. A minute later, she and Ben burst into the bedroom, well, Ben did, he just happened to be carrying her.

There were hands everywhere. Her hands fisted themselves in his shirt, holding on tightly as he guided her to the bed, and set her down on it. The moment she was settled, he then reached for the hem of his shirt, tearing it over his head as she watched. Wow, she thought, he was built like a Greek fucking god. Ben looked like something out of a movie, with a body like a CW star.

Not wanting to be out done though, she reached for the him of her own shirt, throwing it overhead, and tossing it somewhere into the abyss beyond it. Now they were both shirtless; well, she was wearing a bra, but he would probably amend that soon. She wanted him to. She wanted him to be the one to remove all of her clothes, and explore her skin, to taste every inch of her body with his lips. She needed that after the week she had had. She really had. It was exactly what she needed.

Ever the attentive partner, Ben began to descend over her once more, his eyes never leaving hers until the minute he was kissing her again. The smooth, hard planes of his abdomen pressed against her skin, making her feel as though she was the fire and the flame, the reason everything had burned as sheer heat coursed through her veins. 

One of his hands reached down between them, his fingers definitely undoing the buttons of her jeans as he continued kissing her, his tongue sweeping gently into her mouth and sealing them together. She just wished they were sealed together in other ways. _Thank God she bought condoms the other day_ , thank fucking God. That was probably about to save their lives.

He broke away from the kiss to begin trailing them down her throat, sucking her skin into his mouth just beyond her pulse point. Sharp gasps escaped her, her fingers grasping desperately at his hair as she began to writhe against him. All the while he continued to undo for fly, unzipping her jeans until he was able to get his fingers beneath her waistband, and tug. 

Lifting her hips, she allowed him to pull her pants from her body, peeling them slowly until they two were cast side, and tossed casually on the floor. Not wanting to be outdone she quickly followed suit, her fingers reaching for the belt on his waistband, slowly, but steadily on doing the buckle. Ben’s lips were assaulting her neck as she did so, leaving a second mark at the base of her throat. It felt good, it felt incredible, like she never wanted it to end. It was as if every good memory she had was happening at once, and she knew instantly just from the feeling of removing each other's clothes and having her neck kissed that she had found a new favorite memory.

If she had been told a week ago that her favorite moment her entire life would be indirectly caused by a vicious, cruel, unrelenting wildfire, she never would’ve believed it. But winter can’t hold back spring.

Once his pants were gone, he pulled back to look at her again, his fingers grazing gently over her cheeks. “You really do want this.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes,” she told him, hoping the honesty was conveyed in her voice. “I want you.”

He swallowed then, his fingers wandering gently down over the bandage covering her fire wound. Breath catching in her chest, she pressed her hand over his. The seconds began to tick by with them remaining like that, but eventually he did lean down to kiss her again. 

The kiss, however, was not pressed to her lips, but to her wound. His lips were gentle when they pressed into the bandage, barely scraping the fabric that ensured she would heal from her burn. Watching him do that did something to her, a dampness pooling between her legs that made her frighteningly aware of why they were here, why they were holding one another close and wearing nothing but underwear. 

They still had clothes to remove, didn’t they?

Rey’s hands were shaking, but she somehow managed to undo the front clasp of her bra. Ben’s eyes were drawn to it instantly, watching as she freed her chest from its confines. “This doesn’t change our arrangement, right?” she asked, fear mounting in her chest as he pressed kisses to her sternum. “You’re not just going to kick me out after this.”

“What?” He sounded almost offended by the thought of it. 

“I just—” She moaned softly as he began to press those kisses gently over the swell of one of her breasts, his teeth grazing her nipple. “I just want to make sure you don’t—fuck—find this awkward later and want me to leave.”

He paused again, then he pulled off of her nipple, his tongue wetting his lips again as he slowly peeled the fabric of the bra away from her. “No, Rey, I won’t. I’m not going to do that. For one thing, I owe you a life debt. For another, you’re great at helping me recover, and lastly, I really like having you around. I’d just like to have you be naked for a while, if that’s okay.”

Head falling back against the pillow, Rey fucking  _ cackled _ her response. Oh, he had quite the ability to make her laugh, didn’t he? Another moment passed in which she was giggling so hard, she completely forgot why she was there in the first place, all of the bad things that had happened to them had melted away, and there was just her and him. 

Literally. They were both almost naked. It was literally just her and him, not even their clothes. 

“I think having you naked in my company sounds perfect,” she told him, watching the dimples form on his cheeks as he then captured her lips in another kiss. 

“Good, then I believe I have some unfinished business with your tits.”

More laughter spilled from his lips, then she moaned, the sound fleeing her lips without her intending it to as he sucked her second nipple, his teeth grazing it gently as he pulled away, and continued to leave kisses on the sides of it.  _ God _ , he felt so good, it was as if he were in her mind, her very soul, seeing into every piece of her. 

He knew her body better than she did, worshiped her like a goddess. As his kisses trailed lower and lower, he kept his eyes on hers, knowing exactly how wild he was driving her as she began to tremble with every breath, nearly shaking the earth itself as he kissed her through her underwear, his lips gliding over the apex of her thighs as she whined beneath him. 

“Ben,” she breathed, crying out again as he removed his mouth. It was only for a second, though, he quickly pulled down her underwear, nearly tearing it in the process before he tossed it off into the abyss. Once that was gone, he was back, tasting her properly as instant waves of pleasure rushed through her body. “ _ Ben!” _

She’d been touched before, but nothing had ever compared to this. It felt like her body was on fire, but in that particular way that only a really good vibrator had ever been able to pull off. Maybe the fact that all of her toys were ash wasn’t such a bad thing after all. Not if she had Ben, at least. 

He could have at least been a temporary replacement for a vibrator. For a while—hopefully a very long while.

Another swipe of his tongue over her sent stars through her vision, his hands gripping her thighs, holding her still as her hips twitched, her body fighting back the urge to buck up into him. This wouldn’t end well if she wound up with a cut where she didn’t want a cut and he broke his teeth. 

The thought of it made her laugh, and as she laughed, he soon joined her, the vibrations shooting through her as she whispered his name, the sound fading with the distant sound of the ocean’s waves lapping at the shore. “Oh god, Ben…”

One of his fingers pressed gently inside of her, curling so that it hit somewhere deep as she tried not to think about how close she was already. She didn’t want to come too soon, even if it meant she would get the chance to drive him over the edge in turn, but then he pressed a second finger inside of her, then his lips closed around the bundle of nerves there, her mind falling to pieces as he brought her closer and closer to the edge. 

As the time passed, she rode that edge, toeing the line but never falling over it. Ben, bless him, moved slowly, but not so much so that she felt like she was dying at any given moment, just enough that she felt like she was floating. 

At one point, she propped her head up on her arms, watching him as he moved. A chill ran down her spine when she realized he was watching her, too. One of his hands splayed out over her lower abdomen then, covering her skin as he held her down, and the wave she’d been riding finally crested. 

Rey’s head fell back against the sheets, her vision turning to stars as she came around Ben’s fingers, his name and a series of incomprehensible swears leaving her as she fell apart. It was, perhaps, the hardest she’d come in her life, and he seemed to damn well know it, too. There was a smirk on his face as she looked at him, as her chest heaved with the effort of breathing. 

“Holy shit,” she breathed, gasping for air even as he crawled over her. “Please tell me you’ll do that every day that we’re here.”

“Every day, huh?” he asked, causing her to giggle as he kissed her neck, then proceeded to kiss her everywhere that wasn’t her lips. Apparently he’d noticed just how badly she needed oxygen, and while she loved that he respected that, she really wanted him to make her head spin.

Rolling her eyes, Rey took his face in her hands, then muttered, “Shut up.” And without another word, she was kissing him properly. He gave a soft, surprised little grunt at first, but it turned into a low, contented moan, and his hands came up to fill her palms, his fingers lacing with hers beside her head as he stole what little breath she had left inside of her from her lungs. 

This little post-coital kiss was her new heaven, her new  _ home _ . It was so much more than she’d ever dreamed it would be, and suddenly she could feel the pain of all her loss starting to ease. It had been doing so over the past several days, but in that moment, she felt more certain than ever that she and Ben were the key to each other’s healing. She had been healing him physically, but he was healing her emotionally, taking away the sting of hurt with every passing day. 

And he cared about her. Maybe it had just started as him wanting to pay back a life debt, but the way his soft lips caressed hers, the way they moved with hers like they were dancing to their own music, she knew it had grown so much deeper. 

He pulled away before she could melt into it further, his eyes looking into hers as he took one of her hands, and held it between their chests. For a moment, she could feel their hearts beating, then she looked down at where their hands were joined, and ran her thumb over the back of his. “Your hand is warm.”

“So is yours.” He squeezed her hand gently, then let go of it, wrapping his arms around her waist as he rolled off of her, and swept her into his arms. “And you taste incredible.” Another kiss is pressed to her lips, his impossibly low voice going straight between her thighs. “So sweet and…” 

Whatever he was going to say to her got lost in another kiss, the two of them melting together as they laid there in the sunlight. It was starting to get darker, the sun beginning to set, but it was still so bright that her eyelids were shrouded in gold when she kissed him. He was sunlight, her sunlight, and she wanted to feel this way forever.

Eventually, she began to deepen the kiss, her tongue sweeping into his mouth as her thumbs reached for the waistband of his underwear. Once the last pieces of fabric were removed from his body, she rolled him over onto his back with a twist of her hips, pressing him into the mattress as she reached around him for the drawer on the nightstand, the very one where she had placed the condoms into days earlier, and began to rifle around in it for just one of those stupid little foil packets. 

“What are you doing?” he asked, watching as she sat back on his thighs, and began unwrapping the condom. 

All she gave him was a smile as she freed the lubricated latex from its confines. “Not to bring up the fire again, but I should tell you it burned up my birth control, and we don’t know each other like that yet.” Taking him in her hand, she began stroking him, causing his breathing to stagger as she then rolled it onto his erection. “We’ve only just gotten started, I just want to make sure nothing happens that we don’t want to have happen.”

“Right, yeah, that makes sense,” he replied, causing her to giggle as she positioned herself over him, living for the way he watched her, his eyes drifting everywhere—unsure of where to look. 

It was as if he wanted to stare at every part of her at once, but he couldn’t quite do so. His eyes still swept everywhere, drifting lower and lower until they clenched shut when she began to press down onto him, gasping as he filled her in ways she hadn’t known it was possible to be filled. 

Ben was…  _ well endowed.  _ All those dildos that had burned to ash, they failed to compare, failed to come anywhere close, and she soon found herself reaching her limits, her hands pressing against his chest as he rested his hands on her hips. “R-Rey?”

She hadn’t even noticed that she had closed her eyes until she was opening them, blinking down at him in a haze to see he was also looking at her through hooded eyes. His hair was already in disarray, some of it falling into his eyes, some of it spilling out onto the mattress behind him, fanned out in an utterly debauched but oddly beautiful way.

Biting her lip, she began to move, her lips descending on his as she started riding him at a slow pace, both of them moaning against each other as those waves of pleasure passed over her once more. His hands were quick to be everywhere, her breasts, between her thighs, her stomach, her back, her hair—which he nearly tore out he was gripping it so hard—and hers began exploring him in turn. 

Their hands were everywhere, learning each other, exploring one another’s skin, mapping out every piece of the other person as she pulled him up. His fingers dug into her ass, pulling her tighter against him, causing her to sink lower onto him, stretching her further as she moaned his name, finding it to be the only thing she was capable of saying as the time went by, and she got close to the edge. 

“You feel incredible,” she breathed.

He just laughed against her lips in response, both of them slowly losing it as they brought each other closer to the edge, one of his thumbs rubbing circles where she needed him the most. The action nearly forcing her to fuck up the rhythm they’d set, to collapse into him as if she were Jell-O. “Ben, I can’t—”

“Well, I hate to correct you, Rey, but you are,” he told her, the laughter ratcheting up again as the wave that had been building crested, and they fell over the edge together. 

Technically, she fell first, but they were both still laughing so hard she barely noticed it between all of the other sources of bliss until he was shouting her name. Only then did she feel herself fluttering around him, only then did she let herself throw her head back and enjoy it.

She was orgasming and dying of laughter at the same time. That had to be a good sign, didn’t it?   


Through it all, she never stopped moving, never stopped riding him, not until they were both completely spent, not until they were panting and physically incapable of moving. Only then did she stop, only then did she roll off of him, her body limp and a little sore in that particular way that could only come with a right and proper fuck. 

The instant she was no longer on top of him, Ben was quick to reach for the bedsheets, pulling them on top of her, on top of them both, before he propped himself up on his elbow, looking down at her with something unreadable in his eyes. 

“What?” she asked, not understanding what he was trying to convey to her with that look--if he was even trying to convey anything at all. 

“Nothing, I’m just—” He shook his head. “I’m really glad you’re here, and—and I just—” A pause, then he lowered himself to the mattress, sweeping her into his arms as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Rey, thank you so much for saving my life—for showing me there’s something better when the smoke clears.”

“And thank you.” She kissed the base of his throat, just above the little dip of his collarbone. “For saving mine.”

They fell silent after that, the only communication between them coming in the form of Ben’s hand gently stroking Rey’s hair, moving perfectly with the rhythm set by the ocean outside. Together, they just laid there like that for a while, neither moving nor speaking, just existing, just  _ healing _ as the hours passed them by. 


	7. Chapter 7

They were going to heal together, as one unit. The sun rose and with it, news that the fire had begun to be contained. That was the first thing Rey noticed when she woke up and checked her phone. It was only ten percent contained, but that was better news about their hometown than she’d heard all week. 

Ben, of course, was still asleep when she learned it. She woke up naked in his bed and immediately rolled over to check the time, clutching the fabric of the bedsheets to her chest, her body warm and limp, but not so much so that she wasn’t able to look at her phone, and catch sight of the news notification waiting on it. 

A smile blossomed on her face, and while pain lingered still under the surface, it didn’t sting as badly as it had at first. This was good, waking up beside Ben, it was everything she needed, as if just by being in his arms she was safe. 

Turning her head, she spared a glance at him, watching his eyes twitch in his sleep, his mind consumed by dreams. He seemed peaceful, but still she hoped that it wasn’t an illusion, that his mind wasn’t plagued by nightmares like hers tended to be these days. 

No, he wasn’t having a bad dream. There was a trace of a smile on his face. His body was relaxed, not tense like it ought to have been if he were truly in the throes of a nightmare, and so she reached up, resting a palm on his cheek. Little black waves of hair brushed against her fingertips, his body leaned into hers as he slept, and for a while, she held him like that, relishing in the simple joy of breathing with him, the very feeling of being alive enough to part her lips in a smile of her own. 

They laid like that for a while, Rey just content to spend time in his company, but eventually her stomach made its daily desire for food known. She owed it some care, but she didn’t want to leave him, not yet. Life was so perfect in that bed, a part of her feared that by leaving it, she would be breaking the illusion that everything was okay, that things were better now. 

Things  _ were _ better now, though. Things were excellent—or were compared to a few days ago—and so with that in mind she slowly rolled away from him and his warm embrace, and got up out of bed, shivering slightly as the cool air of the room descended upon her skin. 

For a couple of seconds, she ignored it, but her arms still came up to cover her chest as she looked down at Ben’s sleeping face. He looked so well-rested, so at peace, and somehow happier than the man he’d been before—the man who’d brought her gynecologist bill to her door—it was a beautiful thing to see. From the ashes, he had risen, they both had risen, and as long as they were alive, that would always be true, no matter how long they stayed in that house together.

She hoped that would be a very long time. 

Another growl filled the air, the sound emanating from her stomach, and she shook her head in disappointment as she made her way toward her suitcase, rifling through the clothes as quietly as possible until she found an old peach-colored sundress, one that draped loosely over her body and whose hem brushed her mid-thighs with every step. Throwing it on, she spared one last look at Ben, biting her lip to avoid laughing as she took in the raven hair that had swept into his face, then she made her way into the kitchen. 

If she was quiet enough, maybe he’d be asleep long enough to let her bring him breakfast in bed. 

*

The sound of bacon cooking on their stove filled the kitchen. She tried not to let her mind run wild calling it  _ their _ stove, but the term felt right. Something about referring to this whole home as theirs felt good. 

As the meat crackled and popped, she heard a little voice in her head telling her that this was insane, that it was too fast. To that voice, all she had to say was that she wasn’t doing anything. She and Ben were just exploring a connection between them, staying under the same roof for as long as they wished to. If they decided they didn’t want to see each other, she knew he would give her the space to live in his home until she found somewhere else.

All they were doing for now was helping each other heal, and apparently, getting laid. 

That thought made her laugh out loud, her palm coming up to stifle her giggle as she used her other hand to ferry the bacon from the pan to the plates with eggs and pancakes already waiting on them. She wasn’t sure yet if Ben liked his with syrup on it, so she decided to just set the container down on the little tray she’d found beneath the oven, and call it a day. 

Two plates full of food, two cups of coffee with cream and sugar on them, and syrup on the side; a perfect way to begin a day. 

Satisfaction bloomed on her face as she lifted the tray from the counter, double checking that the stove was off as she walked into the bedroom again, kicking the door open with her foot as she peeked inside to see if the man she’d taken to bed the night before was still sleeping. Somehow, in spite of her having dropped a pan whilst retrieving it from the cabinet beneath the stove, he was. 

Ben Solo was exactly as she’d left him—naked and exposed from the waist up, hair astray, legs sprawled in either direction, and his arms outstretched for the woman who’d abandoned him to go make breakfast. Sympathy panged in her chest, but she knew those arms would be filled again soon. He wouldn’t have to wait long at all. 

“Good morning, sunshine,” she said sarcastically as she sat down on the bed beside him, taking extra care not to spill anything as she set the tray down in the space between them, then reached out to brush back the strands of his hair from his eyes. 

She was rewarded by the sight of them fluttering open a couple of seconds later, golden flecks dancing in the midst of a chocolate sea greeting her as he narrowed his eyes, then he smiled, and his dark eyelashes coated his cheeks as contentment settled over his body. “Good morning.” He yawned. “Shouldn’t you be the sunshine, though? Being named Rey and all?”

Oh, he was cute, but she was going to hit him over the head with a pillow. “I made breakfast, you oaf. I figured we could eat before you start figuring out your return to work and I start hunting for a new job.”

“Mmm, right, reality.” He sat up, then she felt his palm caress her cheek, a shiver passing down her spine at how tender the gesture was. “I thought we were putting it off for a few more days.”

“We can, but… I don’t know. I don’t want you to feel cooped up in here with me.”

“Rey, I enjoy your company.” His voice was sincere, it was perhaps the most honest tone she’d ever heard anyone speak with her, and it was refreshing. “Truly, I wish I had spoken to you more often. We should’ve known one another beyond just… ‘Oh hey, here’s your gynecologist bill.’” They both laughed at that, then he dropped his hand to her shoulder. “And now that we’ve spoken, I’d like to keep talking. Truth is, I need a few more days to process what happened. I still don’t remember how I passed out exactly, and I—” He paused. “Every time I look at you, it’s a reassurance that this isn’t just some afterlife. You’re the reason I’m alive, and maybe that’s selfish of me, but I want to stay here just a little longer, just like we’ve been doing.”

“Okay.”

Taking hold of her hand, he brought it to his lips, then he swallowed. “I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”

Their fingers laced together, their eyes meeting a second later as she nodded. “Ben, I’ll stay here. However long you need. It’s symbiotic, isn’t it? Benefits both of us.” She pulled his hand to her lips, placing a short, sweet kiss there, then she held that hand to her heart. “And I think you’re good company, too.”

His smile grew broad, those pink, plush lips parting to reveal his slightly crooked teeth, then he looked down at the breakfast tray between them. “This smells incredible.”

“Mmmhmm, I don’t suppose you’d want to dig in, would you?”

“Of course,” he said, then he leaned in a little closer to her, his lips brushing hers in a brief kiss as he then rested his forehead against hers. “Can we take another walk after?”

She kissed him again, long and slow, in perfect time with the waves he wanted to walk beside. The water howled quietly in her ears, singing its song as she and Ben moved against one another, the breakfast she’d made temporarily forgotten in favor of paying attention to one another’s lips, but then she heard the sound of the forks she’d laid out clinking together, and she giggled as she pulled away, eyes drifting between him and the food. “I think we need to eat.”

“I think you may be right.”

And with that, they dug in, leaning into one another as they listened to the sound of the ocean drowning out the crackle of the fire in their memories. The next stage of moving on would be done together, and for the first time in her life, Rey knew she wasn’t going to have to face the future alone. 

They walked through the fire and emerged victorious, from all that destruction and loss they found each other, and while to some it might not have been much, to them, it was everything. Rey would forever miss her old shop, her old life, but with him? Maybe this new world, this new life wouldn’t be so bad. 


End file.
